Recommendations to Saba's Island Council on Coralita management

The 25th of October 2018, Elizabeth Haber, Prof. Dr. Martin Wassen and Jetske Vaas met with Saba's Governor, the Island Council and Saba Conservation Foundation, to relay our recommendations for Coralita management on Saba. You can find all these recommendations in the attached document, which is what we presented to the Island Council and SCF, and sent to the Executive Council afterwards.

On the short term we recommended:

• Clearing the small specks of Coralita from the upper part of the Crispeen trail and next to Mr. Barnes' sheep pen to prevent it spreading further up Mt. Scenery.
• Pulling Coralita from trees in high erosion-risk areas, such as the Harbour gut and Middle Island Trail, since these trees prevent erosion.

For the longer term we recommended:

• Regularly checking the trails, and removing Coralita immediately if encountered. After all, early removal is easiest and cheapest.
• Monitoring its spread above Dinda's supermarket (Hell's gate), along the mountain road, along the Well's Bay road and at Mary's point trail head.
• Assisting land owners who want to change their Coralita-covered grounds into something of value for the community, such as a fruit orchard. Reforestation or agricultural funds could be attracted for such projects.
• Organising regular clean-up events, such as we did for the Tamarind tree along the Dancing place trail.

As for removal methods, we stressed the health and ecological risks involved with herbicides. Elizabeth has experience with this when she worked for the Wisconsin government, and does not think spraying is the solution for Saba. Moreover, run-off from the steep slopes will damage the reefs. Therefore, digging and regular mowing is the best approach, keeping other plants and humans safe.

We also discussed the values Sabans attach to nature, and which areas are most important per value. This results in the maps on page 5-6, for example agricultural or touristic hot spot areas. Lastly, we stressed that encouraging people to work their land is the most efficient way to curb the spread of Coralita. To paraphrase Tarzan: "It's just a weed, like any other weed you need to remove it!"