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!