Student post: Miso Sablan- Tuesday, January 6th

Miso Sablan is a student at Northern Marianas College. On Tuesday, we flew from Saipan to Guam, and the Saipan students got their first view of Guam's native limestone forests. 

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Wow! What a way to start the new year with such an amazing adventure like this. I just want to say that I am honestly humbled by what I get to experience. All the ecology, hikes, and field trips has taught me so much already. I specifically chose this day because I consider this the first time to come and really see Guam and it's environmental structure for myself. (that and I am just easily excited about travelling anywhere. Haha.)

Guam gives me the feeling of home but with a twist. Like limeritas. Haha. (you can totally omit this. Just thought it was a lame joke) obviously the traffic and the sheer amount of people is a huge difference, but the tangan tangan forests and even the shape of houses gives me a Saipan feel. The karst forest is where I find a lot of differences. The first thing the others and I from Saipan noticed were the amount of spider webs right along the road! I then saw a lot of fallen trees, moss and algae covered karst, fungi or mushrooms, and a tree species that primarily dominated the forest. It rhymes with my name, "neiso". Haha. I'll remember that for a long time.

I was extremely interested in going to explore the forest myself and found that I wouldn't be disappointed. Keeping an eye out for huge cane toads, wild pigs/boar running around, flat worms, and butterflies everywhere kept my senses sharp. The gaps in Guam's forest are a lot more common as well, with fewer really old trees. Dr. Miller also spoke about the flat worms, African snails, and butterflies among other arthropods. Haldre spoke and really educated the class about all the native tree species while Evan spoke about the treefall gap research projects.

To end this I just want to say I know for sure without a doubt, that this or something similar is the field I want to go into.