Marine Monument Advisory Council works on management plan at landmark meeting

  The Marianas Trench Marine National Monument Advisory Council, during its milestone initial business meeting on Thursday, worked on a draft plan on how to manage the resources at the monument three years after President Bush designated it on Jan. 6, 2009.

Of the five advisory council members who met at Fiesta Resort & Spa, three are from the CNMI, including one who has yet to be formally appointed, one from the U.S. Department of Defense, and one from the U.S. Coast Guard.

U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Paul Bushong, commander of the U.S. Naval Forces Marianas and Commander of Joint Region Marianas, represents the Defense Department.

The U.S. Coast Guard is represented by Lt. Cdr. Morgan Roper, who has been operations officer for the Coast Guard in Guam since July.

The three council members from the CNMI are Dr. John Joyner, the governor’s senior policy adviser and a former Coastal Resources Management director; Commonwealth Ports Authority board member and former lawmaker Benigno M. Sablan; and Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Arnold I. Palacios, who has yet to be officially appointed to the council but was allowed to attend the meeting.

Roper, in an interview, said the initial business meeting’s main objective “is to come up with a management plan, and confirm with each other our roles as council members and to ensure that the plan itself is in alignment with the proclamation.”

“Coast Guard is part of the council because we would be doing monitoring and enforcement of any incursions into the monument itself. Having a representative from Guam and being closer, if we were to try and interdict any incursions, it would be an asset that we would come from Guam,” Roper told Saipan Tribune.

The marine monument spans over 480 miles and incorporates about 95,216 square miles within three units in the Mariana Archipelago and contains some of the nation’s most unique and pristine marine environments.

The vast majority of the monument is located in the waters surrounding the CNMI, including its three northernmost islands of Uracas, Maug, and Asuncion.

Joyner and Palacios also said the goal of the initial council meeting was to come up with a management plan.

It was also expected that the meeting would cover the issue of where federal funds to manage the monument would come from, how much, and how soon they will come in.

“I feel great about having an initial meeting because this is the culmination of a lot of preparations.with the idea of actually developing a management plan for the marine monument. It also provides opportunity for each of the entities to share what they see as goals of this huge monument,” he said.

Joyner said it’s pretty much understood that a monument visitors’ center will be located in the CNMI, although there’s no telling yet on which island.

Also at the council meeting on Thursday were National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Lisa Croft and Heidi Hirsh, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Susan White, among other visiting federal officials.

The advisory council’s initial business meeting on Thursday was followed by the first of a series of scoping meetings Friday night at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe, designed to facilitate submission of public comments for the monument’s draft management plan.