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07/14/2025 - Four community groups from the CNMI and Guam—From Luta, For Luta, Micronesia Climate Change Alliance, Tinian Women’s Association, and Our Common Wealth 670—as well as dozens of concerned community members and the diaspora are calling on a 45-day extension on the comment period for the Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the Mariana Islands Training and Testing and CNMI Joint Military Training proposals.
The 75-day public review and comment period started on June 6, 2025, and its deadline is Aug. 20, 2025.
In a letter, titled “For Our Home, Our People, Our Responsibility,” that was submitted to CNMI elected and appointed officials, the groups raised urgent concerns about rushed timelines, inaccessible documents, and the lack of meaningful public participation in decisions that carry generational consequences for the Marianas.
“This is not an opportunity to comment. This is an overhaul of our lives, our land, and our right to self-determination,” the letter stated. “We are not asking for symbolic gestures. We are asking our leaders to use their power to slow this process down, ensure our people are not left out, and make sure that local agencies are not silent.”
Key concerns raised in the letter include—inaccessible documents and broken links on the CJMT website; delayed translations, with Chamorro and Carolinian versions only posted 17 days after the EIS release; rushed and siloed public meetings, with no space for open dialogue or community exchange; and lack of agency response, including absence of comments or guidance from CNMI regulatory bodies.
“We write to you as people of this land. As descendants of fishermen, farmers, weavers, and healers. As stewards who carry forward traditions of protection, relationship, and inafa’maolek—even in the face of harm. We write because what is happening now threatens not just the environment, but the very future of our home,” the groups said.
They said the MITT and CJMT are not routine documents, as the proposals outline expanded war games, live-fire training, and permanent transformation of the Mariana Islands and its surrounding waters. They added that the Revised DEIS carries real, generational consequences—yet was released on overlapping timelines, updated quietly (as recently as June 23), and shared through broken links and inaccessible formats.
“Public meetings [were] rushed across Tinian, Saipan, and Rota—while most of our people still have no meaningful access to the materials. The public meetings further highlighted these barriers. There was no space for open dialogue. No opportunity to witness or engage with the thoughts, questions, and concerns of our neighbors. Community members were directed to submit comments in isolation—asked to step aside, into a corner, to speak or write without visibility, without affirmation, and without the collective process that our cultures are built on. This is not meaningful and substantive participation. It is performative, procedural, and extractive,” they said.
In addition, the community groups from Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and the diaspora are also urging the CNMI leadership for transparency, accountability, and meaningful community inclusion not only on the Revised DEIS but also on ongoing U.S. Air Force developments on Rota.
The groups also took issue with recent developments that saw Guam being used as a decoy in global headlines for B-2 bomber attacks in Iran.
To this end, the groups are calling for three immediate actions: A 45-day extension to the MITT and CJMT public comment periods; full, transparent, and equitable access to materials across all islands; and public engagement and comments from relevant CNMI agencies, shared openly with the community.
Signatories emphasized that this is not only about environmental review—it’s about the future of the Marianas.
“Our islands are not expendable. Our people are not collateral. This is a moment to lead—not through silence or compliance, but through courageous alignment with the values we were raised in.”
Report by Mark Rabago
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