Aliso, 3 years old by Lake Pomacochas. From the big field trip

     ECOAN also invites students from the school in Progreso to plant trees and seedlings in the nursery. Trees from the nursery will be bought by a mine. This mine asked the government if they could mine zinc in an area between Abra Patricia and Lake Pomacochas. The government agreed, but the mine had to reforest. The mine agreed. The mine has taken all of the soil away. The community is mad because they do not think the mine will reforest because it will be very expensive to bring soil in.

Drying dirt from the mine before bringing to Lima to extract Zinc From the big field trip

     ECOAN also teaches children in Progreso. Sometimes the classes walk to the nursery and plant/water the seedlings. Their parents plant the trees when the trees are about three months old. They plant the trees on private and community land. The students also learn about endangered species, including the spatule-tailed hummingbird, the spectacled bear, the yellow-tailed monkey, and others. Tourists come from all over the world to see the birds there. Students learn that tourism is good because the tourists pay for transportation, food, and staying at the lodge. The money that the tourists spend stays within the community.

The nursery in Progreso                               From the big field trip

     We visited the classes to see what they think. A lot of students said that they didn’t think that the rainforest would disappear because it was so big. Some students argued that it was disappearing because the water levels were going down and some animals were disappearing. Some classes asked us for money for field trips and a flag pole.

Th secondary shcool (ages 15-16 in this classroom) in Progreso.From the big field trip

     ECOAN also buys land, either primary forest (forests that haven’t been cut) or deforested areas. In the deforested areas they reforest it from the nurseries. ECOAN buys the land with donations. ECOAN buys certain areas where there are endangered species. In Abra Patricia they had spectacled bear, royal sun angel (a hummingbird), and long-whiskered owlet, a very rare species of owl. The bird has only been photographed once.

long whiskered owlet

     ECOAN also hires people from the community as guards and guides. Someone from our ecolodge named Hector lives right next to the protected area. ECOAN hired him to be a guard because he lives right by it. By Lake Pomacochas there is a hummingbird reserve and interpretation center. It just opened. ECOAN built it for the spatule-tailed hummingbird, a very rare and endangered bird. The people who run it (one was named Bill Clinton) had planted lots of plants that hummingbirds like. People come from all over to see this bird. ECOAN also built this interpretation center to get money for the people at Lake Pomacochas. You have to pay money to get into the reserve. ECOAN will give this reserve to the people in Pomacochas in 10 years. The interpretation center is also a place for kids to learn about endangered species. They take field trips there from Lake Pomacochas.

The opening at the interpretation center          From the big field trip

If you would like to donate money to ECOAN, check out their website at www.ecoanperu.org.

From the big field trip

His home is made out of wood and his roof is made out of metal. He had a hose that was almost two miles long. It brought water from a spring to a large bucket in his back yard. They used the water to drink, to wash clothes, and to wash hands. When the bucket overfilled, the water fell into a smaller bucket. When that overfilled, sometimes the animals would come and drink it. If they didn’t drink the water it would leak into the ground. There is a generator that gives them light at night. His house is really close to Abra Patricia reserve. It is also located near a highway.

From the big field trip

Hector has a restaurant connected to his house. People drive by and if they are hungry they come to the restaurant to eat. The food comes from his farm. He grows potatoes, corn, aji (chili) and other vegetables. He also owns many chickens and animals. The chickens lay eggs for them to eat and they save some eggs to turn into new chickens so they can eat those chickens.

From the big field trip

The ducks are different colors. My favorite duck I named Patriño. He was red on the head and black on the belly and white on the back. He even let me hold him. There were puppies too. Hector keeps dogs to guard the house and the animals. A lot of puppies have been stolen. I had two favorite ones. One was white and the other one was white with black spots. The mom dog was a barker when she didn’t know me, but when she got to know me she stopped barking. Sows are girl pigs. They grow piglets for people to eat. When they kill the pig, they make bacon and pig heads and pig feet and pork chops to eat.

From the big field trip

 Hector had a spectacled bear paw with claws on his wall. The police shot and killed the spectacled bear to have a feast. They said it was good. But it was not good because there are only a few spectacled bears left in the world.

From the big field trip

Hector has brought orchids from the forest and he is growing more. After he grows enough he will bring them back to the forest. Some kinds of orchids are very rare. The rarest orchid is a purple and white flower.

I think Hector’s house is really nice because I love the animals and the kids. I liked the orchids because some of them were the rarest flowers on earth. I really would like to live there with my parents because I love the view and the animals.

From the big field trip