When Clementine Schnabel agreed to mentor Kyle Dahilig through the Navigating Home Fellowship, she got more than research assistance. She got a firsthand look at what it means when local talent comes home.

Schnabel took Kyle in and involved him in one of the Micronesia Challenge’s key projects, a regional effort to manage 50 percent of near-shore marine resources and 30 percent of terrestrial resources by 2030. Reaching those goals takes money, so their task was to research and explore ways to build self-sustaining revenue.

Six participants have begun a six-month path toward potential careers in watershed restoration and forestry with the launch of the second cohort of the University of Guam’s Guam Green Growth (G3) GROW Corps. Over the course of the program, they will learn skills ranging from seed collection and nursery propagation to reforestation, firebreak maintenance, and forest data collection.

By Leilani Sablan Naden, program lead for Guihan for Guåhan
Ask a fisher about fishing in Guam today, and you may hear a familiar sentiment: it just isn’t like it used to be. Trips that once brought home a cooler full of fish may now require more time and effort for a smaller catch. For many, these changes are not abstract scientific observations. They are lived experiences, passed through conversations at the boat ramp, around the dinner table, and among generations of fishers.