In a ceremony on Oct. 6, 2023, Dr. Robert Bevacqua and his Intro to Agriculture (AL-101) students joined the soon-to-retire dean of the College of Natural & Applied Sciences, Lee S. Yudin, and UOG Student Government Association President Kyona Rivera for the unveiling of signs for each tree, displaying the year they were planted and their variety.

“We are here for two reasons: to honor the dean before retiring and to unveil these mango signs that Kyona’s class has planted to leave a lasting monument of their time,” Bevacqua said.

The grafted trees were planted by AL-101 students on May 3, 2023.

As the students struggled to dig into the rocky ground to plant one of the trees, Rivera remembered they wondered how the tree would be able to grow there.

“Dr. B reassured us and told us to keep going and it will grow,” she said. “That taught us the resilience of these mango trees for us and what our resilience is.”

The trees have already withstood two typhoons. Their life at the agriculture college will remain a symbol of resilience, not only of students and the community, but of resilience in sustainable agriculture and enhancing local food production.

The varieties — “Haden,” “Palmer,” and “Glenn,” which were bred in Florida, Australia, and Italy, respectively — were grafted onto rootstocks of the local “Lourdes” variety by Anthony Yatar of Guam Island Fruit Trees at his nursery in Santa Rita. Guam has few, if any, of these varieties of trees outside of the Ija research center.

The trees will begin to bear fruit in two to four years and could produce fruit for 40 to 60 years, with the trees having the potential to live 100 years.