A lovely day at Pulau Ubin, sharing with a team of enthusiastic volunteers from the
Restore Ubin Mangroves (R.U.M.) Initiative.
We were lucky to have experienced people like Philip, Cheryl, Siak Juay, Siva and Grant Pereira to share their stories with us on this trip. I also checked for oil spill impact, more in
this other post.
On a lovely Saturday, RUMblers (as R.U.M. volunteers are called) came together to get orientated on the free monthly mangrove walks done as part of R.U.M. outreach. Thanks to everyone for coming and to
Uncle Lim of no. 42 Pulau Ubin for letting us gather at his shop as usual.
It was exciting to have Rachel Quek with us too. Rachel and her talented team are working on a documentary about Restore Ubin Mangroves (R.U.M.) Initiative for National Geographic!
How fortunate that we met N. Sivasothi and Grant Pereira on our trip. Siva introduced me to nature advocacy as we worked together on
Chek Jawa before reclamation was deferred. And Grant inspired and taught me about Pulau Ubin with his passionate efforts there, including running
Ubin Green House for many years and starting the first Ubin Day more than 15 years ago.
It was great to have Ng Siak Juay share with the team what he had seen during his surveys for oil spill impact in the Heart of Ubin Mangroves.
Grant always has interesting stories about Ubin, the plants, animals and heritage there.
Phillip shares about naturally growing mangroves and the planted mangroves nearby.
Grant shared about these ponds, which he operated a long time ago as a fish farmer!
Thanks to Cheryl for spotting an
Oriental whip snake!
The snake was in strike position! We waited patiently and saw it whip out to grab what looks like a lizard or skink from the leaf litter! Wow, a truly National Geographic moment, captured by Rachel, doing the Nat Geo documentary about R.U.M.!
With RUM Site 1 (Sungei Ubin-Sungei Durian) on the horizon, Phillip shares more about the importance of mangroves to fish farmers that are found all around Pulau Ubin.
Ubin NParks has put up lots of informative panels about various plants. Thanks Alan Tan! The photo in the panel of the durian flower is important as durians only flower infrequently. Here, Phillip is sharing about durians.
Without mangroves, we would not have durians!
Phillip shares more about the traditional used of the pretty flowers growing at the fence of a kampung house at the end of our tour.
As always, the selfie by Mohammad Juhari is the best part of the trip!
I'm so encouraged that these wonderful people have stepped up to the R.U.M. free monthly mangrove walks. Check up the
R.U.M. facebook page for updates on the walk.
R.U.M. volunteers also help out with mangrove cleanups, mangrove surveys, mangrove outreach and lots more!
Here's more details on volunteer opportunities with RUM, requirements and how to register.
MORE photos of our trip
Thanks to
Ng Siak Juay for photos about our trip
Thanks to
Mohammad Juhari for even MORE photos about our trip.
