This afternoon, we stopped in Tanguissan park before our hike to Lost Pond to see the Nanak tree on which my students and I have been observing Guam Tree snails. To my utter shock and disgust, we found someone burned out half of this tree, withering a large portion of the leaves in addition to the burned portions. The other casualty are Partula radiolata, the endemic guam tree snail. Our mark-recapture study estimated that there were 800 snails on this single tree, which is probably over a hundred years old. We found many dead snails, and fortunately many alive. It remains to be seen if we can protect this tree, and it will survive. For all the talk about how awful the militarys firing range plans will be for Guams endangered species and unique environment, events like this really make me think that many people here on Guam have less respect for the environment that the military. Shame on whoever did this.
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 09:26:19 +0000
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