The American Samoa Community College (ASCC) – Agriculture, Community and Natural Resources (ACNR) Division’s Forestry Program have completed its watershed restoration activities in the villages of Leone and Laulii. This is part of the Landscape Scale Restoration (LSR) Watershed Restoration project.
“Management and restoration activities implemented in both the Leone and Laulii watersheds were a complete success,” said Forestry Program Manager Denis Sene Jr. “It was an awesome experience seeing the youth groups come together to protect our environment. Whether money is involved or not, it is our duty to keep our islands’ environment clean and healthy.”
Stream cleanups were carried out in Leone and in Laulii. The restoration activities took place in the Leafu and Fuafua streams in Leone and the Vaitele stream in Laulii.
In Leone, the Forestry Program collaborated with the six village Fuaialas and four churches to complete the watershed restoration activity.
The four participating churches were the Leone Catholic Church, Congregational Christian Church of American Samoa, Assembly of God and the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints.
During the cleanup, over 150 volunteers from the village Fuaialas and churches along with representatives from the American Samoa Environmental Protection Agency (AS-EPA) removed a total of 1.05 tons of solid waste from the village’s main stream. Three native trees were also planted on the watersheds stream corridors for soil stabilization.
In Laulii, the Forestry Program collaborated with the Office of Samoan Affairs in connecting with the Laulii Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Christian Congregation Church of American Samoa, Assembly of God, Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints and St. Johns Anglican churches.
A total of 109 volunteers from the churches, along with 11 representatives from partner agencies such as the Coral Reef Advisory Group and AS-EPA, participated to remove total of 1.49 tons of solid waste from the main stream.
