GROW in Malojloj wraps 2025 planting season

The University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability and Sea Grant (UOG CIS & Sea Grant) wrapped up its 2025 tree-planting season with the final GROW in Malojloj event, bringing together community volunteers for a morning of environmental restoration at the Ugum Watershed project site.

Over 1700 trees, including over 170 native and fruiting species, were planted during the event which was rescheduled from an earlier date in November due to inclement weather conditions and potential safety concerns.

The Guam Restoration of Watersheds (GROW) Initiative has been working to restore degraded hillsides in southern Guam through systematic reforestation efforts. The program addresses a critical environmental challenge: erosion-prone badland areas that send sediment cascading into rivers and coral reefs during heavy rains.

“We really appreciate all the support from the community of our restoration efforts this year,” said Joshua Muna, GROW lead and event coordinator. “Getting to see our people taking an active role in the preservation and conservation of our resources is a great thing and we always invite everyone to participate when they can.”

The tree-planting events serve multiple environmental purposes. The initiative aims to prevent erosion and reduce sediment runoff into both the southern water treatment plant and coastal ecosystems. When sediment reaches these areas, it can contaminate drinking water supplies and smother coral reefs by blocking vital sunlight.

The University of Guam strengthened its presence in STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics) at the 2025 Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) Conference, where three UOG students earned national recognition for their research presentations.

UOG School of Engineering student Azer Bilimon received the Native American/Indigenous Student Research Abstract Award, while Archancel Abellera and Cameron San Agustin received Outstanding Research Presentation awards.

Continuing its strong participation in SACNAS, UOG sent a 28-member delegation—17 of them students—to this year’s conference including Lt. Governor Joshua Tenorio, who serves as a co-principal investigator for NSF Navigating Home and was the keynote speaker. The nation’s largest multicultural and multidisciplinary STEM event took place in Columbus, Ohio, gathering researchers and students from across the United States and its territories.

Cheryl Sangueza, Ph.D., a co-principal investigator of the NSF INCLUDES SEAS and NSF Navigating Home grants, and the head of student experience for Guam NSF EPSCoR, has led several months of preparation for students representing UOG at the conference.

“All EPSCoR and SEAS INCLUDES students who submitted an abstract were accepted to present and everyone smashed it,” exclaimed Sangueza. “SACNAS, where students present their research, network, meet phenomenal and inspiring scientists, and explore next step opportunities, is a key experience in the pathway to graduate school and for career decisions.”

Sangueza along with her capacity building team, who work across the NSF grants, UOG Center for Island Sustainability and Sea Grant (UOG CIS & Sea Grant) and Guam Green Growth coordinate with students from the high school to graduate levels across various programs designed to increase success in STEM fields.

UOG and NAVFAC host brown tree snake workshop and hunt to curb invasive species population

Over 125 community members gathered at Gab Gab Beach for a critical Brown Tree Snake (BTS) Control Workshop and Snake Hunt, a collaborative effort organized by NAVFAC Marianas and the University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability and Sea Grant (UOG CIS & Sea Grant).

The event, coordinated in conjunction with the UOG CIS & Sea Grant’s Island Conservation Lab under the tagline “Learn. Spot. Protect Native Species of the Marianas!”, was designed to raise urgent awareness about preventing the dispersal of the invasive brown tree snake, or Boiga irregularis, from Guam, which poses a serious economic and environmental threat to the CNMI and other islands in the region. Preventing this spread via military and air cargo is a top priority for Joint Region Marianas.

Participants, families, and volunteers alike engaged in live demonstrations of various snake control tools, learned how to identify the highly cryptic BTS in a forest canopy, and practiced how to safely capture and humanely dispatch the snakes.

University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability and Sea Grant associate director for natural resources Else Demeulenaere, Ph.D., represented Guam at a prestigious international seminar on bat conservation at UCLouvain in Belgium, where researchers from across the Indo-Pacific region gathered to discuss the critical intersection of indigenous knowledge and species protection.

The two-day seminar brought together experts in anthropology, history, and biology to examine flying foxes, insectivorous bats, and their relationships with indigenous and local populations throughout the Indo-Pacific. Organized by Frédéric Laugrand as part of the ERC-interspecific project, the event addressed urgent issues including predation, traditional consumption practices, cultural representations, and conservation strategies for threatened bat species.

The University of Guam Center for Island Sustainability and Sea Grant (UOG CIS & Sea Grant) joined an international delegation at Korea Sea Grant Week in November, strengthening partnerships between Korean and American marine conservation programs.

The event brought together representatives from all Korea Sea Grant programs along with a US delegation featuring representatives from Maine, Washington, California, Hawaii, and Guam Sea Grant programs.

The program featured presentations from UOG CIS & Sea Grant director Austin Shelton, Ph.D., who shared successful projects on Guam that deal with ongoing marine debris problems. He highlighted the work at the Guam Green Growth Circular Economy Makerspace and Innovation Hub in his presentation.

VIDEOBYTE: Are you ready for CIS2026? Here's what you might have missed at CIS2025!

Stay tuned for CIS2026 registration and abstract submission announcements soon!

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

SNAPSHOTS!

Thankful Appreciation: The UOG CIS and Sea Grant came together to wish thanks and discuss their programs' big numbers for the year. Stay tuned for a closer look at the impacts of this superteam in the upcoming 2025 CIS and Sea Grant Impact Book!

SEW COOL: Members of the sewing class and workshop held at the G3 Circular Economy Makerspace and Innovation Hub get down to business during the session held in November. This month will see an apron sewing workshop at the makerspace. Sign up on the eventbrite page!

THAT'S ALL FOLKS: Student attendees and presenters of the SACNAS conference attended a final near peer session with Dr. Cheryl Sangueza and the capacity building team upon their return to the island. The group did a magnificent job representing our island and university at the largest diversity in STEM conference in the country!