Native plants for your yard

Thank you to everyone who joined us on Friday for "Green" and a great presentation from Shelly Kremer about building native species habitat in your own yards on Saipan. There were many requests at the movie for more information to be sent about your home litmus test for bird habitat and plants that you can place in your yard, so we have compiled the following information:

Chichirika, Naabak, Rufous fantail (Rhipidura rufifrons)

The litmus test can help you figure out if your yard has sufficient habitat for birds. 

If you see a lot of TREE SPARROWS in your yard, your native bird habitat is BAD.

If you see a lot of STARLINGS, BRIDLED WHITE-EYES, and HONEYEATERS, your habitat is OKAY.

If you see a lot of RUFOUS FANTAILS and GOLDEN WHITE-EYES, your habitat is GOOD.

Don't worry! If you scored low on the litmus test, you can plant the following trees to improve your habitat and attract more birds to your yard:

Nanaso (Scaevola taccada) 

• Gao Gao, Tiger Claw
• Sumak
• Ahgoa, False Elder*
• Agetelang
• Lulujut
• Alum
• Aploghating*
• Nunu, Banyan
• Papaya
• Guava
• Nanaso
• Manzanita

Remember, some of these trees (like papaya) grow very quickly, or you can check our local nurseries or CNMI Forestry for some older saplings to plant. 

If you're looking for more information on native and non-native plants check out:

CNMI Forestry: call 256-3320, stop by the nursery in Kagman, or visit http://www.cnmiforestry.gov.mp/component/content/?view=featured

University of Guam's "Plants of Guam" website, and click on "Plants of Guam" at the top http://university.uog.edu/cals/people/

Even though this is a Guam-specific website, most of the same plants are in the CNMI.

Don't forget about our lending library if you have a community group that would like to host a film showing, and stay tuned for information about our November FFF night of local short films on November 2nd!

"GREEN" this Friday!

Happy October! As our rainy season slowly winds down, First Friday Films is taking you off of Saipan this week to learn about life in another tropical region. Please join us this Friday, October 5th at 6:30pm at American Memorial Park's theatre for the film "Green" and to learn about orangutans and habitat loss in Indonesia.

"Green" is about the rainforests of Indonesia, the life that it holds, and the industries that are trying to destroy it. The film silently follows the life of a female orangutan who is the victim of deforestation and resource exploitation. Although this film is an emotional journey of Green's final days, it also presents the treasures of rainforest biodiversity, which are swiftly being eliminated by logging and land clearing for palm oil plantations.  "Green" makes the point that in order to save the Indonesian rainforests, we must choose to change our consumer habits so as not to be a part of the destruction. Then we can make a significant impact on the industries behind the destruction and make them change.

Before the film Shelly Kremer, a terrestrial biologist who has worked on Saipan for many years, will give a short talk about habitat loss in general and how it is affecting species in the CNMI. Although Saipan's threats are very different in nature and scale from those of Indonesia, there are still a lot of commonalities.

First Friday Films is a partnership between American Memorial Park, the Division of Environmental Quality, Coastal Resources Management and the Humanities Council with support from other organizations. This particular films is sponsored by CRM. As always, our film events are free and open to the public. For planning purposes, this event will run about 70 minutes. Although the film is not vulgar or explicit in any way, the content is very emotional and the film is silent. Therefore, parents might want to carefully consider whether or not to bring young children (under 13).

"The End of the Line" this Friday, Sept 7

Please join us again this Friday, September 7th at 6:30pm for The End of the Line. Before the film, we will have a short introduction to how fisheries are managed on Saipan from the Division of Fish and Wildlife's fisheries supervisor, Todd Miller.

The End of the Line, the first major feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. In the film we see first-hand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food. It examines the imminent extinction of Bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation. Filmed across the world – from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market – featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world.

If you fish, eat seafood, are interested in global environmental issues, or just want to watch a new film on a Friday night, you should definitely come and check this out! The film will be shown at the American Memorial Park indoor theater. As always, our film events are free and open to the public. First Friday Films is a partnership between the American Memorial Park, Division of Environmental Quality, Coastal Resources Management and the Humanities Council with support from other organizations. This particular film is sponsored by the Humanities Council.

PLAY AGAIN on August 3rd!

Please join us this Friday, August 3rd at 6:30pm at American Memorial Park visitor's center for PLAY AGAIN!

What they do not know, they will not protect, and what they do not protect, they will lose. At a time when children play more behind screens than outside, PLAY AGAIN explores the changing balance between the virtual and natural worlds. Is our connection to nature disappearing down the digital rabbit hole?
This documentary follows six teenagers who, like the “average American child,” spend five to fifteen hours a day behind screens. PLAY AGAIN unplugs these teens and takes them on their first wilderness adventure—no electricity, no cell phone coverage, no virtual reality. What are we missing when we are behind screens? How does this impact our children’s well being, our society and the very future of our planet?
PLAY AGAIN introduces new perspectives and encourages action for a sustainable future.

First Friday Films is a monthly film series brought to you through a partnership with the National Park Service and the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), with generous support from community groups. This particular film is provided by the Humanities Council. For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.

Friday, July 6th "Houston We Have a Problem"

Houston We Have a Problem

First Friday Films will be featuring a film entitled Houston We Have a Problem on July 6^th, 2012 at 6:30pm at the American Memorial Park Visitor’s Center as part of their ongoing monthly environmental film series.

Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of cheap energy. Step inside the energy capital of the world to hear the truth about oil, straight from the hearts of the Texas oilmen themselves. See decades of American presidents who have warned against the dependence on foreign oil and how the U.S. Energy Policy has always been a strategy of Defense, not Offense. Today, in the midst of Global Warming and Peak Oil, the world’s energy demand is skyrocketing. Aggressive strategies for securing Crude now go to the highest bidder or the biggest bully. Hear the confessions of oilmen who work in the trenches every day, scrambling to feed America’s ferocious appetite even while knowing that this addiction to cheap oil will be the nation’s downfall. Houston We Have a Problem makes it crystal clear that we must embrace all forms of alternative energy to save the planet and ourselves.

First Friday Films is a monthly film series brought to you through a partnership with the National Park Service and the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), with generous support from community groups. This particular film is provided by the Humanities Council. For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public. 

Shark Sanctuary FIlm Showings this Friday and Saturday

There will be two showings this Friday (7pm at Hopwood Junior High School) and Saturday (7pm at American Memorial Park's Amphitheatre) of Sanctuary: The Last Stand for Sharks in Micronesia. This is the much-anticipated follow-up to Sharkwater featuring Micronesia's shark conservation efforts!

Although this is not on our regularly scheduled day, we hope to see you there! Stay tuned for news soon on the July First Friday Film that will be shown on July 6th.

Reminder: Ocean Frontiers and 2nd Anniversary Tomorrow!

Don't forget to come out to American Memorial Park tomorrow, June 1st for Ocean Frontiers and the 2-year Anniversary of the First Friday Films program. Thank you for all the support you have shown us over the years!

Celebrate Our 2nd Anniversary with "Ocean Frontiers"

Come help us celebrate our 2^nd anniversary and World Oceans Day!  First Friday Films is celebrating by showing the film Ocean Frontiers, sponsored by the Pacific Marine Resources Institute on June 1st, 2012 at 6:30pm at the American Memorial Park Visitors Center. Following the film, audience members will also be invited into the courtyard of the Visitor’s Center for a brief reception.

Ocean Frontiers takes us on an inspiring voyage to seaports and watersheds across the country—from the busy shipping lanes of Boston Harbor to a small fishing community in the Pacific Northwest; from America’s coral reefs in the Florida Keys to the nation’s premier seafood nursery in the Mississippi Delta. Here we meet a mixture of unlikely allies, of industrial shippers and whale biologists, pig farmers and wetland ecologists, sport and commercial fishermen, reef snorkelers and many more, all of them embarking on a new course of cooperation, in defense of the seas that sustain us.  Filmed in HD, Ocean Frontiers is a documentary and outreach campaign to inspire and mobilize audiences to better care for the ocean, for the good of all.

Exhibits by DEQ Marine Monitoring Team and Marianas Island Nature Alliance (MINA) will be on display in the lobby area of the American Visitors Center before and after the film. After the film and courtyard reception, movie-goers are invited to join the First Friday Films crew for dinner at Spicy Thai across from the Park to discuss the films they’ve viewed and the future of our film program.

First Friday Films is a monthly film series brought to you through a partnership with the National Park Service and the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), with generous support from community groups and organizations such as the Pacific Marine Resources Institute, which is sponsoring this film.

For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.

HOMO TOXICUS to be shown Friday, May 4th

First Friday Films will be featuring Homo Toxicus on May 4^th, 2012, 6:30pm at American Memorial Park Visitors Center. 

Filmmaker Carole Poliquin investigates the remarkable amount of toxic chemicals that exist in our bodies with this documentary that will have viewers taking great caution while deciding what to put in their bodies. Every day, tons of chemicals are released into the environment, without ever knowing how toxic they are in the long term to the living organisms. Moreover: the majority of the 100,000 molecules developed since the World War II, which are used in daily products, have never been tested. Some of them found their way into our bodies and into fetuses. Up to 247 toxic substances have been found in new-borns. We are today bequeathing our toxic load to our children along with our DNA!

First Friday Films is a monthly film series brought to you through a partnership with the National Park Service and the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), with generous support from community groups and organizations such as the CNMI Coastal Resource Management Office with support from RC&D which is sponsoring this film. For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.

Environmental Film Festival Starts tomorrow

Just a reminder that the 1st annual EAM Environmental Film Festival starts tomorrow!  See the schedule in the post below for details.

We'll see you tomorrow!

Environmental Film Festival and Picnic this Month!

This month we will be holding our 1st annual Environmental Film Festival and Picnic!  See the schedule and notes below for details.  Please help us spread the word as we think this will be a great event!

FRIDAY April 27^th

6:30pm Zero-Waste Picnic Kickoff* (location: AMP outdoor amphitheatre)

7:00pm FEATURE FILM: Addicted to Plastic (location: AMP outdoor amphitheatre, runtime 85 minutes)

SATURDAY April 28^th

10am – 1pm CHILDREN’S FILMS (location: AMP Visitor’s Center indoor theatre)

10:00am The Lorax (animated 1972 version based on the book by Dr. Seuss, runtime 30 minutes)

10:45am The Man Who Planted Trees (runtime 30 minutes)

11:30am DisneyNature’s OCEANS (runtime 84 minutes)

2pm – 3pm MATINEE: Navigators: Pathfinders of the Pacific (location: AMP Visitor’s Center indoor theatre, runtime 60 minutes)

4pm – 6pm REGIONAL SHORTS (location: AMP Visitor Center’s indoor theatre)

4:00pm Fanihi: A Cultural Digest (runtime 15 minutes)

4:15pm Talakhaya: A look at the Rota Revegetation and Luta Livelihoods Project (runtime 15 minutes)

4:30pm Home for Hawksbill (runtime 30 minutes)

5:00pm Micronesia’s Changing Climate (runtime 30 minutes)

5:30pm The Voices of Laolao (runtime 15 minutes)

6:30pm Zero-Waste Picnic Kickoff *
 (location: AMP outdoor amphitheatre)

7:00pm FEATURE FILM: The Disappearing of Tuvalu 
 (location: AMP outdoor amphitheatre, runtime 75 minutes)

* Bring your dinner to the park for a Zero-waste picnic before and during the film. Movie-goers are encouraged to bring food, drinks and snacks that will create no trash to enjoy throughout the film. Bring reusable plates, utensils, drinking cups, water bottles, and cloth napkins. Package your food in Tupperware instead of plastic bags. Compost and recycling will be collected but trash bags will not be provided. Learn how to reduce trash on Saipan while enjoying the movie. (Please note: alcoholic beverages are not permitted within American Memorial Park.)

"Castaways" to be shown this Friday!

First Friday Films will be featuring another episode of BBC’s South Pacific, entitled Castaways, on April 6^th, 2012 at 6:30pm at the American Memorial Park Visitor’s Center as part of their ongoing monthly environmental film series. 

Remote islands that emerge out of the ocean as a consequence of different geological events are initially barren of land-based living creatures, but not for long. This episode looks at how plants, animals and humans all eventually find their ways to even the smallest and most remote of islands by riding ocean and wind currents or taking advantage of storms. Some crafty organisms even find ways to hitchhike around by attaching themselves to other species or riding along on boats with people.  Come see another episode of this beautiful series presented in HD quality Blu-ray! 

 

For planning purposes, the movie runs about 50 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public. 

 

Stay tuned for more information regarding our upcoming Environmental Awareness Month Film Festival on April 27 and 28 at American Memorial Park.

Climate of Change this Friday, March 2nd!

First Friday Films will be featuring Climate of Change, an incredible, award-winning documentary shot across four continents. Showtime will be on March 2, 2012, 6:30pm at the American Memorial Park Visitors Center.

Directed by Brian Hill and narrated by Oscar winning actress Tilda Swinton, Climate of Change tells several stories of determined everyday global citizens and their efforts to combat human-induced climate change.  The film makes a strong case for the role of individuals in saving the planet and a powerful call to act.

Additionally, Dr. Jeff Maynard, a visiting research scientist specializing in climate change impacts and environmental risk in the Pacific, will be speaking before the film about his experiences studying the biology of global environmental change.

For planning purposes, the movie will run about 90 minutes. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public. First Friday Films is a monthly film series brought to you through a partnership with the National Park Service and the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), with generous support from community groups and organizations, such as the NMI Council for Humanities who sponsored this film.

There Once was an Island tomorrow!

Its the first week of February, which means its time for another First Friday Film event!  Tomorrow (Friday 2/3), we will be screening the award-winning film There Once Was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho, by New Zealand director Briar March. Showtime will be 6:30pm at the American Memorial Parks Visitors Center.
This very moving feature documentary is not to be missed. The film follows three people from Takuu atoll in the Solomon Islands as their community experiences the devastating effects of climate change firsthand. Will they decide to stay with their damaged and sinking island home or move to a new and unfamiliar land, leaving their culture and language behind forever?  You can see the trailer for the film here: http://www.thereoncewasanisland.com/

Additionally, we will have Noah Idechong, Speaker of the House of Delegates of Palau and founding member of the Palau Conservation Society, giving a very special video presentation about the effects of climate change on Micronesia and how Palau and other Micronesian nations are looking to combat it through political means.

For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.  A special thanks goes to the NMI Council for Humanities, who sponsored this film.

See you tomorrow!

Talakhaya film to be show on channel 2 tonight!

A new documentary on Rota’s Talakhaya Revegetation Project will be featured tonight, Jan. 25, on Channel 2 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

The Talakhaya Revegetation Project was implemented in 2006, where community planting efforts were greatly increased to reduce impacts of decades of deforestation by illegal burning.

The 14 minute, locally shot and produced documentary highlights the challenges they face with burning and soil erosion, the revegetation efforts of the community, and the project's successes over the last 5 years to reduce sediment from running off of the land and polluting adjacent coral reef ecosystems.   The short film will air immediately following Channel 2’s evening news programs.

Funding for the film and the Rota DLNR headed revegetation program has come from the U.S. Coral Reef Initiative.

Don't Miss it!

There Once was an Island for February

First Friday Films will be featuring a powerful new film for the month of February, There Once Was an Island: Te Henua e Nnoho by New Zealand director, Briar March. Showtime will be on February 3, 2012, 6:30pm at the American Memorial Parks Visitors Center.

This award winning, feature documentary is not to be missed. The film follows three people from Takuu atoll in the Solomon Islands as their community experiences the devastating effects of climate change firsthand. Will they decide to stay with their damaged and sinking island home or move to a new and unfamiliar land, leaving their culture and language behind forever? 

First Friday Films is a monthly film series brought to you through a partnership with the National Park Service and the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ), with generous support from community groups and organizations such as the NMI Council For Hummanities which is sponsoring this film.

For planning purposes, the movie runs about 80 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public.

"Economics of Happiness" tomorrow!

We have a great film tomorrow (Friday) at American Memorial Park at 6:30pm.  We will be screening The Economics of Happiness, a film that looks into how globalization is affecting our communities and their well being (a full description of the film can be found in our previous post here).

We are incredibly excited to have Anthony Pellegrino speaking before the film and answering audience questions about localizing our economy here in the CNMI.

This event is the beginning of several sponsored by the CNMI Council for Humanities, and we can not thank them enough for their support of this project.

For planning purposes, the movie runs about 65 minutes long. As always, First Friday Films is free and open to the public. 

See you tomorrow!