PIC logo
Well, we survived the 2009 Annual meeting of the Pacific Islands Committee (PIC) , which was held this year in the Republic of Palau. One of the main topics of this year’s meeting was of course, SWARS. The PIC is a committee of the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition (WFLC), which is in turn, a subgroup of the National Association of State Foresters (NASF). In these recent economic hard times, many WFLC committees have gone by the wayside, and PIC is the only committee still standing, which demonstrates how important this meeting is to WFLC.
US Affiliated Islands in the Pacific
This annual meeting is the most important event for the foresters working in the Pacific US States (Hawaii), Territories (Guam, American Samoa and Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands – OK the fine points of the status of each can be clarified if there is interest) and the Freely Associated States (formerly Trust Territories of the Pacific), and now comprising the Federated States of Micronesia (Kosrae, Phonpei, Chuuk and Yap), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (too many atolls to mention), and the Republic of Palau.
Basically, at a PIC meeting, 50 forestry-related people get together to talk about common issues, discuss administrivia (exactly HOW do you fill out a Federal f310-a form to get reimbursed under grant C2009g699hs(a7). But more important than that, relationships between individuals, nations, islands and programs are strengthened. Problems are solved (especially the tricky people problems). Information, technology and data are shared.
Conferences are exhausting, no way around it. You awake at 6 AM, go down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, but breakfast is a pre-meeting since inevitably, several other colleagues will be there. Then you go to the venue, meet, strategize, tear through the tear sheets, compile, synthesize, break-out, strategize some more over dinner, and then retire to your room to prepare for the next day.
My four take-away points from this meeting:
- Everyone is behind schedule on their SWARS
- Every data set, Federal program, every agency and every ecotome (i.e., forest, mangrove, shoreline, reef) has their own language, jargon, data structure – and for SWARS we must learn them all
- This being the first time for every State/Territory/Freely Associated State, nobody quite knows what to do, and nobody quite knows what their exact role is.
- I cannot live without being in email contact at least once a week. 12 days without internet was like turning off the electricity at home, and coming back to dead plants, a dead aquarium, a flooded bathroom, and a fridge full of rotten food. Never again!
But one thing is for sure. Palau is THE most spectactularly beautiful place I have ever been (and I have been a few places)
-Ron