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If you love plants and animals as much as me, there is a cool event happening this weekend that you can participate in. The City Nature Challenge is an international event that asks people around the world to find and document wildlife in their own cities. The Virgin Islands National Park is participating in the event, so if you are lucky enough to be on St. John tomorrow through Monday, you can join the fun. Not on St. John? No problem! Numerous cities around the country are participating too!

The City Nature Challenge asks participants to do three things:

1. Find wildlife. It can be any plant, animal or other evidence of life found in your city.
2. Take a picture or record a sound. Be sure to note the location of the plant or animal.
3. Share your observations through the iNaturalist app (or your city’s chosen platform). We are using i-Naturalist down here in the Virgin Islands. Tip: If it’s planted or taken care of by people, it is not wild. Mark those captive or cultivated.

Participants are asked to take pictures from April 26th through April 29th. All images will be identified from April 30th through May 5th. The results will be announced on May 6th.

The City Nature Challenge began in 2016 as a competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Here is what they had to say about this year’s event:

“There is nature all around us! Knowing what species are in our city and where they are helps us study and protect them, but the ONLY way to do that is by all of us – scientists, land managers, and the community – working together to find and document the nature in our area.

“By participating in the City Nature Challenge, not only do you learn more about your local nature, but you can also make your city a better place – for you and other species!”

Staff from the Virgin Islands National park will be available at Cinnamon Bay from 7 a.m. to noon Friday through Monday to introduce guests to the i-Naturalist app and to provide information about the event. Guided bird walks, plant identification walks, and seashore walks will be offered daily, as well as a moth program on Saturday night. Click here to see that schedule.

Click here to learn more about the City Nature Challenge.

Click here for a full list of participating cities. 

Want to learn more about St. John? Looking to take an island tour?

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Follow Explore STJ on Social Media

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It’s taken 2,420 days for me to write something positive about the shuttered Caneel Bay Resort property, and I can finally do it today – on Earth Day of all days. I am happy to share that the 150-acre Caneel Bay property will become part of the Virgin Islands National Park. This decision follows a nearly two-year federal court battle over land ownership rights, and it will hopefully clear the path for rebuilding the shuttered resort.

Judge Cheryl Ann Krause granted the United States of America’s motion for summary judgement last Thursday, stating that the “title to the resort’s land remains with the United States, and title to the improvements thereon shall be conveyed and transferred to the Department of the Interior forthwith.” This document was made available to the public Monday.

A little bit of background for those of you who may be new to this story…

Caneel Bay was a picturesque resort located in St. John between Cruz Bay and Hawksnest Bay. The 150-acre resort opened on the same day that the Virgin Islands National Park opened in 1956. Caneel Bay Resort was opened by Lawrence Rockefeller, a man who is also credited with establishing the Virgin Islands National Park thanks to a 5,000-acre land donation. The resort was destroyed, however, in September 2017 when Hurricane Irma barreled through the islands, and has remained shuttered ever since.

The resort and the land it sits on were supposed to convey to the Virgin Islands National Park last fall, but that did not happen due to a federal court case filed by EHI Acquisitions – the company that operated the hotel until Hurricane Irma. The lawsuit, filed in June 2022, claimed the land, buildings and improvements at Caneel Bay should be theirs due to a clause in an Indenture created by Rockefeller himself. The lawsuit hinged on the word “offer,” specifically whether there should be a dollar amount attached to one. EHI believed they should receive $70 million in exchange for the buildings and improvements, hence their “offer,” while the United States disagreed.

The judge determined that the term offer “unambiguously means an offer to convey the improvements free of charge.” And with that, she ruled in favor of the United States of America. This means that the 150-acre property should become part of the Virgin Islands National Park, but it likely will not be that easy.

I reached out to EHI’s attorneys Monday afternoon, and they said they plan to appeal. “EHI is disappointed in the ruling,” attorney Julien Adams told me by phone. This appeal could perhaps tie up the property even longer.

I reached out to the government’s attorneys, as well as the superintendent of the Virgin Islands National Park Monday afternoon, but have yet to hear back. Therefore, I am uncertain how this ruling will affect ZoZo’s, the restaurant that operates at Caneel Bay, or the Caneel Bay Beach Club, which operates at Honeymoon Beach. I am also uncertain whether cleanup will commence soon, or if it will be put on hold pending the appeal.

The National Park Service announced its plans to rebuild the resort last summer, pending the outcome of the federal court case. Its plan is to rebuild the hotel, which would not exceed 166 rooms, the same number it had prior to the storm. It also plans to expand public access, including concessions, watersports rentals, public restrooms and showers, picnic tables, etc. Click here to read more about the National Park’s plan to rebuild Caneel Bay. 

And for those of you who enjoy reading court documents as much as I do, you can click here to read Judge Kraus’s decision in its entirety. 

As always, I will keep you posted on all of this. Happy Earth Day everyone. 🌎

Want to learn more about St. John? Looking to take an island tour?

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Follow Explore STJ on Social Media

–> www.facebook.com/explorestj

–> www.instagram.com/explorestj

Hello everyone, and welcome to the middle of the week! This week was supposed to be a washout here on St. John, but thankfully the weather has changed, and the sun is shining. We did get some much-needed rain over the past several days, which was great, but it wasn’t enough to ruin any vacation days. It simply filled up our cisterns and will ultimately help to green up the island, which was showing signs of a drought, a typical thing for this time of year.

As I briefly mentioned earlier this week, the island is very quiet at the moment, unusually quiet for this time of year. It is a great time to take advantage of some last-minute discounts and discounted airfare, and take a quick trip to your favorite Caribbean island. I was out and about with island tour guests yesterday, and I was surprised to see plenty of parking at Trunk Bay around 10 a.m. and also at Maho around 10:30 a.m. The restaurants in town appear to be pretty quiet too. You can definitely get into your favorite spot quite easily at the moment. I’m not certain what’s causing this mid-April lull, but my guess is that it’s because Easter came early this year, it shifted school vacations around the country.

Let’s chat about businesses. Work is continuing at the old Quiet Mon spot. A longtime resident took over the lease and plans to open something new later this year. I will tell you more as soon as I am given the go-ahead. And out in Coral Bay, it looks like Sharky’s is ready to open, but has been unable to do so yet. Sharky’s took the spot where Salty Mongoose used to be. They did a nice little remodel, and the place looks great. I will let you all know as soon as it opens.

I looked at the weather for the next few days, and the winds are going to be super calm, quite the contrast from last week. It looks like it will be a great week to get on the water or enjoy some beach time.

I don’t have an island tour scheduled for tomorrow, so I will go out and about and will take some new video for all of you. If there is anything you would like to see, feel free to send me a quick email at jenn@explorestj.com.

That’s it for today, folks. Have a great day!

Want to learn more about St. John? Looking to take an island tour?

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour See the island of St. John with a resident. See the nooks and crannies that many visitors miss. Explore the beaches, historical sites, perhaps a tiki bar or two, and much more. Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

Follow Explore STJ on Social Media

–> www.facebook.com/explorestj

–> www.instagram.com/explorestj