Conservacion Patagonica

“I will always look at these precious weeks as those that allowed us to see why the name Patagonia so powerfully sings the call of wild in the hearts of even the most sedentary persons.”  -Max Krieger, Round River Patagonia student, March 2012

On April 11^th, the first crew of students from Round River Conservation Studies’ new Patagonia program finished their three-month semester program at the Patagonia National Park project. Camping out the whole time, the students gained university credit for their field ecology studies, conducted in the heart of Chilean Patagonia.  According to their mission statement, Round River is dedicated to conservation strategies that preserve and restore wild places – and what better location to put these into practice than Valle Chacabuco, heart of the future Patagonia National Park?

The primary research goal of this semester was to conduct an inventory of the grassland vegetation present in the valley. By splitting the valley into ten different zones, the students carried out a rigorous survey of the grassland vegetation and observed changes in species composition across Valle Chacabuco. Along the way they inevitably experienced an assortment of unforeseen challenges, or what they like to call “fortuitous encounters with adventure.” Fording rivers, fuel shortages, and braving the fierce Patagonian winds were just some of the obstacles that the students faced to provide this valuable research.

Given the ambitious scale of their project and tedious nature of the work, sometimes it was easy to forget about the majestic beauty of the surrounding landscape. But, according to student Kelly Davis, “the riverbed provides a safe chance to look up. With swift force, I am reminded of the vastness of this place, mountains beyond mountains indeed. I wade into the icy current. The water here is fresh enough to drink, dripping from glaciers and snow-capped peaks high above. North of the river we find what we have been looking for: Grassland.” Well grassland they did find, and by mid-March, the group had distinguished over eighty different species!

In the constant act of balancing school work with field work and play, the Round River crew made various side trips to further explore the wonders of Valle Chacabuco. Highlights of their time in the park include backpacking up the Aviles Valley, huemul tracking with Daniel, and hiking to Lago Gutierrez. Towards the end of their stay, perhaps in return for months of hard work, they got the ultimate reward – a brief but coveted sighting of the elusive puma!

In addition to field work and academic studies, the students also kept a comprehensive blog of their experience in Valle Chacabuco. Here, their attention to detail in the landscape is impressive, and their words are at once both descriptive and inquisitive. Writing of their journey up the Aviles Valley, Eli Fox recalls the grandeur of one prominent mountain peak, Cerro Pintura. “It instills curiosity and wonder at how every shade of red and orange are wrapped around its cliffs like a cascading scarf.” During another day hike, Tom Murphy stops to consider the previous inhabitants of the valley. “Sitting in the shade of the overhang, I wonder what that landscape may have looked like through their eyes and whether they would even recognize the landscape as it appears today. We sat in silence for a long time, letting this scene embed itself in our minds where it will surely remain for many years to come.”

Involving the younger generations in conservation is perhaps one of the most vital tasks in the uphill battle of land restoration and preservation. The passion that these Round River students share for the environment and the Patagonian landscape is contagious, and it is precisely this passion and enthusiasm that gives us hope for the generations to come. These are the people who represent the future of conservation, and we eagerly look forward to working with them again this upcoming September.

To learn more about Round River’s first semester in Valle Chacabuco, follow the link below: http://www.roundriver.org/index.php/rr-blog/categories/listings/student-program-patagonia-spring-2012

Kris Tompkins, Conservacion Patagonica’s founder and president, says this is “the coolest award she’s gotten:” a newly discovered species of frog now bears the Tompkins name. This frog lives in the rainforest of Tanzania’s Nguru South and Nguu North Mountains.  This well-adapted amphibian changes color from day to night: from milky white daywear to yellow with brown spots for nighttime.  A fairly small frog, it emits a cheerful chirp to signal its presence.

At their 21^st annual Artists for Africa benefit, the African Rainforest Conservancy (ARC) honored Kris and Doug with the New Species Award for their “lifelong passionate commitment to land conservation and environmental activism.”   Held on Wednesday, April 11^th at The Prince George Ballroom in NYC, the benefit featured a live auction to support ARC’s mission of advancing the conservation of Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests through a longtime partnership with the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group.   Benefit Host Lauren Hutton, the model and actress, presented the award to Kris, saying she hoped to visit us in Patagonia before long.   A crowd of over two hundred guests, including eco-model Summer Rayne Oakes, ARC founder Carter Coleman, and literary giant Jay McInerney, joined in the celebration.

Kris accepted the award on the behalf of Doug and the entire Conservacion Patagonica and Conservation Land Trust teams, thanking the conservationists in Chile and Argentina with whom the couple works.  Benjamin Saucedo, son of CP Conservation Director Cristian Saucedo and Volunteer Program Manager Paula Herrera, is particularly excited about this honor.  A budding grade school herpetologist, Benjamin spends every free minute tracking down new frog species at the Patagonia National Park project, where he lives.  He already knows more about the different amphibian species in the area than anyone around, except for, perhaps, his father.  Now we’ll have to send him to the forests of Africa to hunt down Kris and Doug’s froggy relative!

Carolina Pavón, from Quillota in Chile’s Fifth Region, joined our volunteer program at the Patagonia National Park project this January.  As a university student at the Vertical Instituto Profesional studying Ecotourism, she (like many Chilean student volunteers) used our program to fulfill her university’s internship requirement.  She spoke with us about her month in the park and what she’ll take away from the experience.

Q: How did you learn about Conservacion Patagonica and the Patagonia National Park project?

A: I learned about Conservacion Patagonica and the Patagonia National Park project in class at my university. Then I learned that the park runs a volunteer program, and I thought it would be interesting to participate in a project this big.

Q: What were your impressions of the landscape and wildlife of the future park?

A:  The most spectacular and impressive landscapes I’ve ever seen are here, in the future park. One minute you’re looking across a beautiful endless valley and the next thing you have in front of you a lagoon, surrounded by huge rocks and ancient forests, or a large river, running down the hills, between the valleys… It’s a game of colors that blows your mind.

And if we’re talking about wildlife, every species here has its own special character. Our group of volunteers had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a huemul, a deer in danger of extinction. We practiced bird-watching, so we saw many differnt birds, such tucúqueres, rayaditos, tiuques, carpinteritos, cóndores, pitios, chincoles, chunchos, traros, etc.  We saw several culpeo foxes but we weren’t so lucky as to see a puma.  We did see fresh footprints around some of the trails, though!

Q. Can you describe your daily life as a volunteer?

A.   Day-to-day life as a volunteer begins when we wake up together at our field base camp.  We cook breakfast together and pack up lunch to take with us to wherever we’re working, usually a short hike from the base camp.  with getting up, clean ourselves up and having breakfast with the whole group.   Then we head off to work!

After a full day in the field, we return to base camp and cook dinner.  We cooked a lot! From pizza to sopapillas, pancakes and bread.  Then for fun, we’d sometimes go for a swim, or sing and dance.  We had salsa and merengue classes, taught by one of the volunteers in the group.  And we taught the non-Chilean volunteers to dance the cueca (a traditional Chilean dance).  That was even more entertaining!

We did different types of work: picking coirón (native bunchgrass) seeds, removing old ranch fences, helping build new trails, and removing exotic species along the roads and in the valleys. For me, the most satisfying job was building trails. Thinking that you’re making a trail that thousands of people will hike in the future is an amazing feeling. You’re contributing to a project that’s going to last for years and years and that many will admire and appreciate.

On the weekends and in our time off, we took day hikes around the park, getting to explore more beautiful and important places.  We also visited the nearby town of Cochrane a few times.

Q. Who volunteered with you?

A.  All the volunteers while I was there were fantastic, fun, hardworking people, full of energy and laughter.  People had a wide variety of careers—graphic designers, occupational therapists, architects, guides, and more.  We came from different walks of like, but shared one goal: being a part of this awesome project.

Working with many people I’d never met before, many of whom came from different countries and cultures, taught me to be more open-minded and patient.  When you’re camping together and working together, you have to respect each other and pay attention to everyone’s opinions.

Q. Why did you feel this project was important to join?

A. The future Patagonia National Park is important for conservation because it protects species, both animal and plants, in danger of extinction and it preserves areas of rich biodiversity, including many endemic species. And it’s important for Chile because it will generate good economic activity in the region. It will help create job opportunities for the local communities and raise the profile of southern Chile as a ecotourism destination.

Q. Will we see you again sometime at the future park?

A. Yes! I hope to return, a few years down the road, to see with my own eyes the park this place will become. I want to see how the hard work has paid off and how the people (local and foreign) is enjoying of the wonder of this place.