A SPECIAL LEGACY CLUB DEPARTURE

DATE: APRIL 11 TO 16, 2016(Dates include travel from and back to the U.S.)

St. Croix, USVIJoin fellow travelers on this excursion to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands. Spend time with us during the week learning about our coral reef restoration work and basking in the sun.

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Overview

No matter where you live, oceans are essential to your life. But oceans today are facing more threats from human activity than ever before. Lack of comprehensive planning for intense use is leading to extensive pol-lution, depleted fisheries and the large-scale destruction of important habitats such as coral and oyster reefs, wetlands and mangroves. With a population quickly approaching nine billion and the effects of a changing climate increasing, the threats to our oceans will only continue to grow.

The Nature Conservancy’s goal is to bring oceans back to health so they can provide multiple services food, livelihoods, energy, protection from storms, and recreation—for people around the world and support their remarkable diversity of life. Our vision for the Caribbean region is to triple the amount of habitat protected by the year 2020. Our goal is 21 million acres set aside in national parks across the various 10 countries partici-pating in the Caribbean Challenge Initiative. We focus primarily on marine-related activities such as increas-ing marine habitat protection, sustainable management of marine national parks, sustainable fisheries, coral reef restoration and resilience, implementing nature-based solutions to adapt to climate change, as well as sustainable finance and tourism activities.

The Conservancy’s US Virgin Islands Coral Restoration Program established underwater coral nurseries on St. Croix and St. Thomas to regenerate two endangered reef-building coral species – elkhorn (Acropora palma-ta) and staghorn (Acropora cervicornis). In a win-win situation, fragments of these endangered coral species naturally broken from a reef by storms or waves are rescued and replicated in the underwater coral nurseries. To date, we have raised more than 2,500 individual elkhorn and staghorn coral colonies in four nurseries. In 2012, Conservancy scientists transplanted – or outplanted - over 1,000 of those to carefully selected reef sites around the islands of St. Croix and St. Thomas. More than 16,000 corals are being grown in five coral nurseries in the Bahamas and USVI and last year (FY14) 3,500 nursery-grown corals were successfully trans-planted onto the region’s degraded reefs.

Come spend a week with us to see this work first-hand!

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Day 1: MONDAY, APRIL 11 (TRAVEL DAY, MAINLAND TO ST. CROIX) Suggested arrival time: 3 PM

Welcome to the Caribbean! Arrive on the island this afternoon and meet your guide who will transfer you to the Buccaneer. You will have some time to check in and freshen up after your flight. Your lodgings are located right on the water and you can walk right from your room down to the pristine blue water. Local staff will join you for at the hotel for a special welcome drink and an orientation to the week ahead of you. Conversation will continue over dinner at the hotel.

Overnight: The Buccaneer Hotel (www.thebuccaneer.com) Found-ed in the 17th century and family run for generations, this gracious, elegant, legendary resort is St. Croix’s pocket of posh. Both historic and modern, it is the longest-running resort in the U.S. Virgin Islands. In the Caribbean, it would certainly rank among the top 20 platinum resorts. This large, luxurious resort has three of the island’s best beaches. The property was once a cattle ranch and a sugar planta-tion; its first estate house, which dates from the mid-17th century, stands near a freshwater pool.

Day 2: TUESDAY, APRIL 12

After breakfast this morning transfer to Northwest St. Croix, an exceptional part of the island. Here, the natural and cultural history of the island comes alive. Hike down the mountainside to Annaly Bay (hike is fairly steep in some areas) with TNC staff and a local guide. Here you’ll find a moist forest, valleys, slopes, rocky shoreline, and small and large tidal pools or saltwater baths. Your hosts will then accompany you on a drive along the north shore road to the popular beach at Cane Bay where TNC has a coral nursery. Before slipping on your flippers and snorkel, enjoy a light lunch and a lunchtime presen-tation from TNC staff, Aaron Hutchins and Kemit Lewis, on our coral reef restoration work. After your time in the water or relaxing in the sand, if you’re feeling brave come back and try a Bushwacker! This evening you will enjoy dinner at Galleon with the TNC Coral Team.

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Day 3: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13

Today, you’ll take a seaplane to St. Thomas and see TNC work from the water. The group will take a chartered catamaran to Flat Cay, a small cay located near southwest St. Thomas. This popular dive and snorkel site is the home of one of the largest thickets of staghorn corals in the Caribbean. A collection site for TNC’s coral restoration program, Flat Cay has also been developed into one of the six coral nurseries located in the US Virgin Islands. You will be able to snor-kel around both the thicket and the TNC nursery here. Lunch will be provided there, and if time permits, you’ll visit Magen’s Bay, the Conservancy’s privately-owned nature preserve. Return to St. Croix in the late afternoon or evening and have dinner at the hotel.

Day 4: THURSDAY, APRIL 14

This morning enjoy some free time to rest after the previous day’s adventures. Enjoy the beach right out your back door! Or perhaps you want to take a shuttle or a cab into town for some shopping and sightseeing. Be sure to ask TNC staff about the jeweler who makes special Nature Conservancy pieces.

After lunch on your own at the Bucanneer, depart the hotel and drive to St George Botanical Gardens. After visiting the Gardens you will drive to Frederiksted by the Rainforest (weather permitting). Short visit of Frederiksted town and pier before you go to Sand Castle Hotel and have Dinner at Beach Side Café.

After dinner, TNC staff will meet you for a special leatherback turtle watching experience at Sandy Point Wildlife Refuge. Special fact: this is where the final scene of the movie The Shawshank Redemp-tion was actually filmed.

Day 5: FRIDAY, APRIL 15

After breakfast, visit The Nature Conservancy’s office and preserve at Estate Little Princess. Follow the driveway up to the old sugar plantation built in the 1700’s for a tour of the property. While walk-ing the grounds, keep an eye out for small pieces of broken dishware or “chaney” on the ground. Chaney are shards of china imported in the 18th and 19th centuries that were eventually broken and discard-ed. Children on the island began finding these pieces of china and using them as play money, calling it chiney money and eventually chaney. Today these shards are often collected or set into one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry. If you find a piece, you can take it to a local shop that will incorporate it into a necklace or bracelet for you.

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The Estate’s land steward, Richard Gideon, will show you around the property and explain the green technologies at work like grey water and solar power. Out on the grounds Richard will point out the flora and fauna and explain how they were used during plantation days. Adjourn to the large main room of the estate that is reminiscent of a scene from a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel for lunch and a cool drink. Over lunch, local staff will share The Nature Conservancy’s priorities in the US Virgin Islands.

After lunch the group will continue on to visit St Croix’s East End Marine Park, the first territorial park in the U.S. Virgin Islands. With nearly 17 miles of beautiful shoreline and the longest fringing reef in the US Virgin Islands, the East End Marine Park is a natural and cultural treasure! This park protects the largest island barrier reef system in the Caribbean. The Virgin Islands Government hired the Conservancy to develop a management plan to guide the future of East End Marine Park. The Conservancy collaborated with local fish-ermen and dive operators, professionals at local and national univer-sities, and local and federal agencies to develop the plan. This first territorial marine park was established in 2003 in order to protect the natural and cultural resources of the east end of St. Croix. Bird watching abounds at salt ponds at Chenay Bay and Great Pond!

Return to town for a farewell dinner.

Day 6: SATURDAY, APRIL 16DEPARTURESSay farewell to the Caribbean today. You will be transferred to the airport for your flights homeward.

THANK YOU FOR TRAVELING WITH

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY!

*This itinerary is representative of your trip, and like all natural history excursions, activities are subject to modification based on weather and unforeseen events. We will do our best to keep you informed on any

necessary changes.

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