Vanuatu mission takes on new course

From left: Connor, Gavin and Rowan with their parents Janis Steele and Brooks McCutchen aboard the research vessel Llyr during a previous marine exploration trip in the Pacific. Submitted photo.

By DIANE BRONCACCIO, Greenfield Recorder Staff, Sunday, March 22, 2015

HEATH — The snowy, ice-covered hilltops of the Berkshire Sweet Gold Maple Farm seem worlds away from the 83 tropical islands of Vanuatu. But Brooks McCutchen, Janis Steele and their three sons are preparing to leave Heath after maple sugaring season for the hurricane-damaged island nation.

From the Republic of Fiji, they will sail on their research vessel Llyr for the roughly five-day journey to the South Pacific islands, where central lush forests and subsistence gardens were scrubbed bare by the 185-mph winds of Cyclone Pam, a Level-5 hurricane that struck on March 13.

The 800-mile-long island chain is home to roughly 250,000 people, 120 indigenous languages and an extraordinary range of biodiversity, according to McCutchen and Steele.

“Janis and I are social scientists,” explained McCutchen. “We are cultural anthropologists trained in human ecology.” They created a service organization called “Island Reach,” under the sponsorship of the nonprofit Ocean Foundation, to promote environmental and cultural projects in the island communities.

In 2011, Steele and McCutchen mortgaged their 18-year-old farm to buy the Llyr, which is Welsh for “of the sea.” During their first years, they worked in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic and in Haiti, learning about the coral reef.

Last year, after sugaring season, the McCutchen-Steele family sailed to Vanuatu, where they used their 53-foot, motorized sailing vessel to deliver rain barrels to island villages, and showed island children how to build “coral gardens” along damaged sections of the coral reef that helps prevent shoreline erosion and provides marine habitat. During their five-month stay, they also worked with local environmental stewards to remove Crown of Thorns starfish infestations that are destroying those coral reefs.

The research vessel Llyr delivering water tanks to island villages in Vanuatu last summer. Submitted photo.

This year, they were planning to work on coral reef preservation when the cyclone hit. Now, they also hope to help that small nation preserve its landscape and restore food security for its people.

McCutchen says four out of five people live on food grown in their gardens. The storm hit when summer food was to be harvested, and before the seeding of winter crops. According to a United Nations report, the storm has wiped out the banana crop, coconut crop and island cabbage, which is a staple green with more protein than most greens, according to Steele.

Because their working yacht, as they call the Llyr, can move three to five tons of gear, Steele and McCutchen plan to use their vessel to transport rebuilding materials and seed crops from island to island.

“We want to move from village to village with our local partners, to keep the partners into long-term sustainability projects,” McCutchen said. The islands have only one major ferry service and groups of smaller ferries, so, “it’s expensive to move gear around,” he said. “We’re looking to transport seed stock and farming hand tools. We’re corresponding with partners about what we can do in preparation. We’ve already seen the massive transportation budget the government is looking at,” he said. “We don’t charge.”

Steele added that their transporting and installing rainwater storage tanks last year saved islanders from $20,000 to $30,000.

“We fundraise for our budget,” she explained.

Island Reach works with Vanuatu environmental stewards known as “Vanua Tai,” which means “Land and Sea.” This group was originally formed to protect the islands’ sea turtles, but has gone on to work on other environmental preservation projects, including protecting the coral reef.

“Fuel (to be used) for Cyclone Pam relief will be in our budget, if that’s what the government of Vanuatu wants in a crisis like this,” said Steele. “Everybody’s collaborating.”

Their sons, Connor, 20, Gavin, 12, and Rowan, 17, are involved with every aspect of Island Reach, according to their mother. Steele said her two oldest sons will be joining the others May 28 in Vanuata, because of their school schedules.

The Ocean Foundation is a sponsor of Island Reach and tax-deductible donations can be made through the foundation’s Friends of Island Reach at:

oceanfdn.org/donate/island-reach

Information about both the maple farm and Island Reach is at:

berkshiresweetgold.com

On the Island Reach section, there is a link for a video called “A Vessel for the Vanua-tai.”

You can reach Diane Broncaccio at: dbroncaccio@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 277

Samuel, only his first name given, carries a ball through the ruins of their family home as his father, Phillip, at back, picks through the debris in Port Vila, Vanuatu in the aftermath of Cyclone Pam Monday, March 16, 2015. Vanuatu’s President Baldwin Lonsdale said Monday that the cyclone that hammered the tiny South Pacific archipelago over the weekend was a “monster” that has destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the buildings in the capital and has forced the nation to start anew. (AP Photo/Dave Hunt, Pool)

In this March 15, 2015 photo provided by UNICEF Pacific, young children move around debris as residents work to recover from Cyclone Pam in Mele village, on the outskirts of the capital Port Vila, Vanuatu. Vanuatu’s President Baldwin Lonsdale said the cyclone that hammered the tiny South Pacific archipelago was a “monster” that has destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the buildings in the capital and has forced the nation to start anew. (AP Photo/UNICEF Pacific)

In this photo provided by China’s Xinhua News Agency, locals walk past debris in Port Vila, Vanuatu, after Cyclone Pam ripped through the tiny South Pacific archipelago, Sunday, March 15, 2015. Packing winds of 270 kilometers (168 miles) per hour, Cyclone Pam tore through Vanuatu early Saturday, leaving a trail of destruction. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Luo Xiangfeng)

This aerial view of a small island in Vanuatu’s north shows the extent to which the island has been denuded by Cyclone Pam, on Friday, March 20, 2015. The cyclone tore through the South Pacific archipelago Saturday, destroying homes and killing at least 13 people. (AP Photo/Nick Perry)