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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
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Reef Fest Focuses on Information

Ellerton Maynard, flood plain manager at DPNR, uses an enviroscape to demonstrate how water flows through the environment.A trickle of people, mainly vacationers, stopped by the Trunk Bay Beach’s pavilion Saturday to peruse information provided by a dozen environmentally-oriented agencies and groups on hand for Friends of V.I. National Park’s Reef Fest.

“Anything that says fest on it looks like it would be fun,” said Shelia Nugen of the Dallas-Fort Worth area as she headed for the exhibits.

Amy Mitchell, staying at a vacation villa in Reef Bay with a group of friends, said she wanted to see what it was about because of the connection between Reef Bay and Reef Fest.

“I found it intriguing,” she said.

And John Tagliamonte of Lexington, Mass., said he decided to make the short detour to the pavilion on the way to the beach.

“I had five minutes to kill,” he said.

Some of those who took in the presentations were no stranger to environmental concerns. Rafe Boulon, who recently retired as the chief of resource management at the national park, was busy checking out the displays.

“An old dog can always learn something,” he said.

Many of the groups with presentations at Reef Fest came equipped with displays to bring home the point of their message.

Ellerton Maynard, the flood plain manager for the Planning and Natural Resources Department, had a nifty “enviroscape” to show how water runs downhill through the watershed into the ocean.

“And if your house is in a flood plain area, it has to be elevated three feet above the BFE – the base flood elevation,” Maynard said, spraying water on the enviroscape to show how the water flowed downhill.

Valerie Peters of the Blue Flag certification program for beaches and marinas said the organization plans to unveil a program next month for individual boaters. While they won’t receive certification, as beaches and marinas do, involvement means boaters will adhere to a marine-friendly code of conduct.

Valerie Peters discusses Blue Flag USVI's new boating program.“No dumping of waste in the ocean …” she said, ticking of a long list of things on the must-do list.

The Caribbean Oceanic Restoration and Education Foundation, better known as CORE, had a dead lionfish on display to show people what the voracious fish eater looks like.

“It’s really important to get the younger generation involved,” CORE’s Leslie Charpentier said.

V.I. Energy Office spokesman Don Buchanan was passing out a slew of brochures on issues pertinent to the environment.

“We’re in bad shape and nobody’s even paying attention,” he said.

The University of the Virgin Islands set up shop to promote it’s free Coral Reef Discovery Week summer camp for students ages 15 to 19 from the territory and the British Virgin Islands. It runs July 22 to 26 at the university’s MacLean Marine Science Center. More information is available by calling 1-0340-693-1376.

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