Buenas yan Hafa Adai Governor Lou Leon Guerrero, Lt. Gov Joshua Tenorio, and Senators of the 37th Guam Legislature:

I am a concerned citizen writing in support of Resolution 325-37, which urges Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Congressman James Moylan to find a different site for the Ritidian Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center and its related facilities outside of the "Refuge." Current plans would move the visitor's center to another area within the "Refuge," a move that would cause irreversible damage to the land and special parts of of our history and heritage, as well as further disenfranchise the Ritidian original landowners in their decades-long efforts advocating for the right to return as stewards of the land.

Please note that support for this measure does not assume support for the establishment of a 700-acre Live Fire Training Range Complex at Tailalo', which the Refuge facilities are being moved to accommodate. The decision to move the Refuge Center for a bombing range is an insult to the original landowners' families who were never afforded an option for facilities to be moved so that they could return home.

I vehemently oppose the firing range complex for its harmful environmental and cultural impacts. According to the Navy’s own studies, Tailalo’ (Northwest Field) was considered the most destructive option of the five location options.

• The LFTRC is being built over the Northern Guam Lens Aquifer (NGLA), a precious resource that provides our island community with 85% of our fresh drinking water. Up to 6.7 million lead bullets will be fired and more than 400 grenades will be exploded over the aquifer each year, threatening our primary water source as well as surrounding ocean areas.
• Fifteen endangered species call this land home, including the sihek  or Guam Micronesian kingfisher, which is extinct in the wild and in captivity; åga, or the Mariana crow, ko’ko’, or Guam rail; fanihi, or Mariana fruit bat; Guåhan's last remaining adult håyun lågu tree; abbabang or Mariana eight-spot butterfly; three species of tree snail and six native plants. For some species that will eventually be reintroduced, the land must remain pristine for them to thrive.
• High levels of lead were detected in soil samples taken adjacent to the U.S. military’s Puuloa Range Training Facility in Ewa Beach in O'ahu, Hawai'i, some with up to 17 times the state safety standard for an industrial area. Ritidian must be spared the same fate.
• The Guam Fishermen's Co-op has testified against the firing range, opposing the Surface Danger Zone extending three miles out into the ocean, cutting off one of the best areas for fishing for 273 days out of the year while the range is in operation. Families who have fished in these waters for generations will no longer have access to their ancestral waters.
• Yo'åmte will be cut off from accessing rare åmot (medicine) plants, thus impacting the ability for the CHamoru people to perpetuate traditional medicine cultural practices.
  
  These are just a few of the many impacts that our community stands firm against.

Our responsibility on earth is to stand for a cause such as this that will ensure that our descendants have a future, that they have a life, that they have access to clean drinking water and all the resources they need to live fully and to thrive. This cause is one of protection; it is one of protecting generations to come.

Protect our northern coastline. Protect Ritidian. Return the land to make it right.