Dispatches from the Field & Project Summaries
One Year Update – Maine Huts & Trails
April 15, 2011
Questions & Answer: Dave Herring – Executive Director
Have additional huts been built/added to the trail system in the past year? Are you closer to reaching your 12-hut goal?
Yes. We opened Grand Falls Hut in October 2010. It is located approximately 11 miles north of Flagstaff Lake Hut below the spectacular Grand Falls above the banks of the Dead River. We are currently creating a five year plan and will likely look to add two more huts during that period. The entire 12-hut, 180-mi vision is likely more of a 10-15 yr plan.
What energy efficient elements have you added or are hoping to add to the new huts? I know solar panels and compost toilets were a main feature.
We added 50% more panels to the Flagstaff Lake Hut solar array and are planning to install solar hot water preheat systems to each of the huts over the next few years. The Grand Falls Hut is about 30% smaller than Flagstaff and Poplar Huts.
What has been the feedback from the local community to your hut-to-hut trail system?
The response has been very positive. Local guides are now leading trips on our system, local businesses (inns, restaurants, shops) are benefiting and we’re sourcing more and more food and products from local farms and providers each season. Learn more about our “local approach” here.
Have you seen an increase in tourism to the state, specifically western Maine due to the promotion of the hut-to-hut trail system? Are you finding more people using the trails for summer or winter recreation or both?
Yes – our winter business has grown faster than our summer/fall business. We will see more than 2000 visitors this year – many of them coming to western Maine for the first time to see all that we have to offer! I think our real impact on tourism in the region will come when we can bring more visitors here in the summer and fall. There are so many activities to take part in during that time of year: paddling, fly-fishing, hiking, mountain biking, birding, etc.
Water: Consumption and Conservation
April 7, 2011
In the words of William Ashworth, as “Children of a culture born in a water-rich environment, we have never learned how important water is to us.” While nearly one in eight people worldwide lack safe drinking water and 2.5 billion people don’t even have access to a toilet www.water.org, our water-spoiled society scoffs at the notion of drinking tap water or reducing our wasteful consumption.
Americans buy enough bottled water in just one week to circle the Earth more than 5 times! Such bottled water costs 2,000 times the amount of our nearly free and safe tap water and that doesn’t even include the environmental costs of its production and waste stream. The energy used to manufacture bottled water could fuel one million cars and sadly, only 20% of those bottles ever make it to a recycling bin. Check out “The Story 
of Bottled Water” by Annie Leonard www.storyofstuff.com to learn more. Make a difference today, get yourself a reusable water bottle and never leave home without it. Our hydroflask bottles www.hydroflask.com have toured the country with us every step of the way!
We recently had the pleasure of an intimate discussion with a group of Austin 9th graders about what we do to conserve resources on the road and water is always our hot topic. We first suggested reducing the amount of time spent in the shower, as even a 5 minute shower consumes more water than what individuals in developing countries are able to use in an entire day. However, when we suggested actually limiting the number of showers per week, faces started to cringe. While personal hygiene is important, do we really need to shower every day? What happened to the good old fashioned sponge bath? Sponge baths are just one of the many ways we are able to save water in the RV. Call us crazy if you wish, we like to call it sustainable. Don’t be afraid to get your feet wet (or should we say dry) and find your own unique ways to conserve water. Share your “crazy” stories with us!
Belize Expedition: Day 13
January 20, 2011
With one last interview, a walk through the bamboo groves, and a breakfast of sweet papaya, we’re packed and jostling along to Belize City, racing to make our flights. We are bug-bite ridden (Chris’s legs look like he picked up a rare tropical disease in the rainforest), unshowered and unkempt (my jeans are so dirty they could walk themselves home), but, I think, thrilled with the success of our trip. It was a whirlwind of two weeks. We saw organic vegetable farms and burning corn fields; we swam in phosphorescent algae and climbed the pyramids of Tikal; interviewed a woman surrounded by her two body guards and a tall Belizean with a booming laugh; drank Gallo and Belikin, ate fresh tortillas and stale ham sandwiches, and learned a few phrases of Creole (Weh yu nayhn?). I’ve been so inspired by all the people we’ve met, by their projects and attempts to change, and I’m excited to see how they develop and grow.
Belize Expedition: Day 13
January 17, 2011
Spanish Creek Rainforest Reserve: Rancho Dolores
Raymond Reneau walks through the forest like a hunter. “You smell that?” he asks. “A jaguar was here, must’a killed something. You smell ‘da rotting carcass?”
But, now and again, he pauses along the path to point out medicinal plants and trees—he seems to know the name and properties of every leaf and hanging vine. Though he used to hunt this forest, Raymond’s now a licensed tour guide for Spanish Creek Rainforest Reserve, guiding tourists through the ins-and-outs of his backyard. We’re walking along an old logging road looping through the forest, under second-growth mahogany and logwood trees—the lucrative hardwoods that first brought British settlers (pirates) to Belize. We stop at a tree marked Billyweb. “It’s named after guy named Billy,” says Raymond. “He had, what’s it called, he had athlete’s foot, so he put ‘da leaves on his feet to cure it. His friends say, ‘Billy, now you got a web on yo’ feet!’”
Marc’s 75-acre bamboo plantation and organic farm are surrounded by a 1,900-acre expanse of forest. Marc intends to keep this forest intact and untouched, each complementing the other—the “forestry” part of “agro-forestry.” The land borders the Spanish Creek Wildlife Reserve, a 5,900-acre community-run forest preserve initiated and organized by the 250-person town of Rancho Dolores. In 1998, when hunters and loggers coming from outside towns began taking over the forest, the community realized its backyard—and livelihood—would soon be gone. They worked with the government of Belize to put this land under conservation, earning the access to protected lands funding. “We got funding, and we got to change our way of life,” says Raymond—to displace hunting with something not only more sustainable, but more stable. Raymond got trained as a tour guide; others got jobs as rangers, Bed & Breakfast hosts, and arts and crafts producers.
Together, the Spanish Creek Wildlife Reserve and the Spanish Creek Wildlife Sanctuary form a key connection in the Mesoamerica Biological Corridor—a key migratory corridor for all the birds we’ve seen, as well as large game like jaguars—that passes through Belize, Guatemala, and Mexico. And, you’ve got locals like Raymond picking at jaguar scat for the amusement of tourists rather than for tracking.
Belize Expedition: Day 12
January 16, 2011
Spanish Creek Wildlife Reserve: Rancho Delores
So… what are they going to do with all this bamboo? Though they’re still in the very early stages of development, Marc’s got a vision: handcrafted furniture, baskets to window shades, maybe even paper. Each species of bamboo grows differently, producing a diverse array of materials to choose from. The bamboo on the plantation ranges from bold black shoots, smooth and rich, to bamboo so pale and strong that it’s mistaken for ivory. This diversity is essential for creating the artisan furniture Marc plans to export to the U.S.
Today, after a breakfast of eggs snatched from the chicken coup and vegetables from the garden, we toured around the farm. Four years after planting the bamboo cuttings in neat rows in this rich soil, the shoots now rise a hundred of feet overhead, forming a dense canopy spindly branches and bushy leaves. And, four years later, they’re already making furniture. We stopped by the workshop on the farm, where Tony was building his third ever piece of furniture from bamboo—a four-story shelving unit for the palapas. The unit’s made entirely of dowel rods that Tony whittled and shaped to fit together, sans screws or glue. Bamboo is so strong because of its “nodes”—essentially the joints of the bamboo. While the rest of the shoot is hallow, a thick diaphragm fills the space at each node—usually spaced a few inches apart—reinforcing the shoot on its rapid growth. These nodes lend character to the bamboo, creating its characteristic rings and texture.
Past the bamboo trees and along the edge of the forest, we arrived to Brooks’ palapa. Brooks McGowin, the manager of the Spanish Creek farm, came to Belize as a WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) volunteer with her boyfriend, Justin. They fell in love with the area, decided to stay, and built themselves the dream palapa. Tucked into a jackfruit grove, it’s entirely off the grid (three solar panels charge a 12V battery outside the house); after two years of hard work to transform this cabana-on-stilts into a home, they’ve created an amazing example of an alternative life. While Justin kept his job in the states, working remotely, Brooks manages the farm at Spanish Creek, a task that ranges from cultivating avocados to feeding lambs and roosting chickens, to managing the seven-or-so WWOOF volunteers that filter in and out of the farm.
Belize Expedition: Day 11
January 16, 2011
Spanish Creek Rainforest Reserve: Rancho Dolores
The sun set in Bermuda Landing, and we headed seven miles up the road, west to Rancho Dolores Village. After a few wrong turns—and an escort from a friendly Belizean—we finally found the entrance to the Spanish Creek Rainforest Reserve. Rocking along the narrow road, under a dark canopy of vaulted bamboo shoots leaning over the car, it seemed like we had arrived to another world.
The road opened, and we arrived to fresh chicken tamales boiled in broad banana leaves, kerosene-lit palapas with vaulted thatched roofs, and cold Belikin beer: just what we needed to get energized for our last project. Started and run by Miami-based Marc Ellenby, Spanish Creek is an amalgamation of many things—organic farming, volunteer training, sustainable tour operator—but at its core are agro-forestry—the integration of forest and agriculture—and, above all, bamboo. Marc has farmed citrus and bamboo in Florida for decades, venturing down into Belize in 2004 to begin his dream farm.
His 50-acres of bamboo make up the largest and most diverse bamboo plantation in Belize, and he expects to be the only exporter in Belize. Eighteen different species of bamboo spread out over the 50 acres. Interspersed are jackfruit, avocado, and banana trees; there’s a chicken coup, wandering lambs, and one big-balled ram.
Bamboo is one of the fastest growing tress in the world, not to the mention the strongest. In the right conditions, shoots can grow up to two feet a day—Marc says he’s measured his growing a foot a day. Mature shoots can grow hundreds of feet and they’re strong enough that, in many countries, bamboo replaces rebar as a concrete reinforcement. And, because these bamboo shoots grow in clumps, emerging from a single cutting planted under the soil, felling a shoot doesn’t kill the plant—another simply emerges from the source. It’s the ultimate sustainable tree.
Belize Expedition: Day 11
January 15, 2011
Community Baboon Sanctuary: Bermuda Landing
There isn’t a single restaurant in any of the seven towns in the river valley, a problem when you depend on tourists for income. So, CBS and the women’s group organized a group of women and formed a network of caterers. These twelve women are like cooks on demand—whenever a group comes in, they either invite them into their homes or bring meals to a community center or hotel.
Sharon Robinson, for example, got the right to cater for tourists because her father was a CBS landowner, and hosted us for lunch at her home. In the front yard sat a grounded schoolbus, sinking into the mud, rust and vines inching up its sides. “Hey, it’s Into the Wild,” I joked. I walked around its periphery, peeked inside, and found a bed and a messy pile of clothes stacked on a hammock in the front cab—someone’s home. It was a startling and humbling reminder of the poverty that continues to haunt much of Belize, especially in these rural areas.
Why, in the face of such poverty would these sustenance farmers be willing to give up parcels of their land for something so abstract as habitat preservation? Because, as former hunter, current tour guide, Robert Pantin said: “You can make more money looking at da wildlife than killing it.”
“I used my gun to make a living,” he said, rattling off a list of twenty animals he used to hunt. But, he realized, “if you can show a white tail deer, for example, to a new group of people every day, you have a living—you can do it for a lifetime, and so can anyone else.”
Though the preservation of howler monkey populations has been impressive, CBS most notable success is their focus on integrating wildlife conservation with human development. Tourism is the most direct way locals benefit from the sanctuary, but they do so in a myriad of ways. Some make arts and crafts; some host guests in their homes; some work as tour guides, or taxi drivers, or cook for tourists. Reuben Rhaburn committed part of his land to Community Baboon Sanctuary back in 1985, when it was first beginning.
“It was easy for me to get involved,” he said, shrugging. “I like the environment, and well, they came by and asked me to pledge.” And, he recognizes it’s about more than the monkeys. “Trees help us in many other ways. They help our health,” he said. “When a hurricane comes, trees help protect us from the wind, from erosion. They’re not just protecting the wildlife, they’re protecting us, too.”
Belize Expedition: Day 10
January 15, 2011
Community Baboon Sanctuary: Bermuda Landing
Adults in Belize are referred to directly and indirectly as Mister or Misses, even by other adults—Ms. Jesse, Mr. Rhaburn. At Community Baboon Sanctuary, it’s the Misses who are running the show. Community Baboon Sanctuary is controlled and managed entirely by women through the Community Baboon Sanctuary Women’s Conservation Group. “When a woman can do it, a woman get it done,” said Ms. Dorla, one of the seven women, one from each community, who lead the group. They took over in 1998 when “the men weren’t getting it done,” and have since built a community education center in Bermuda Landing, which now hosts a bi-weekly youth group.
Because in this case, the two are inextricable, Community Baboon Sanctuary and the women’s group don’t only take care of the monkeys—they take care of the community. With only one full time employee—Diana Ruiz, the lovely young woman who moved to Bermudian Landing to manage the project—CBS depends on the passion of the women of the women’s group—all volunteers—to initiate change in their communities. “We’re looking to find a way to protect the habitat, but also for people to earn a living, so they’ll stick with it,” said Conway Young, the son of local founder, Faley Young. People can get together to write project proposals, and CBS will help find grants and funding to realize these projects. Though many are peripheral to the monkeys, all are geared towards finding sustainable ways the community can support itself, and spreading the benefits of the sanctuary over the entire community.
Last year, Ms. Dorla, who was part of the women’s group that helped start CBS, got a group of women together, wrote a proposal, and now runs one of the only processing mils in the country for cohune oil. The cohune nut is found all over Belize; it looks like a golf ball-sized coconut, and it’s a cultural staple—you can eat the fruit, or use its oil for cooking or “for making the hair nice and smooth.” But, cracking open the nut and extracting oil are labor intensive. Ms. Dorla realized the potential market for cohune oil, and decided to start a little operation. With a grant procured by CBS, that little operation is now a self-sustaining business with the infrastructure–three machines and a four-room processing plant–to process oil from all over the country. The income generated from cohune oil provides yet another incentive to preserve the forests. The nuts are collected after they drop from the trees, so it’s a completely sustainable use of the forest, and everyone can get involved in the collection and processing—kids, women, and men.
Belize Expedition: Day 10
January 15, 2011
Community Baboon Sanctuary: Bermuda Landing
It’s called the Community Baboon Sanctuary, but don’t let that mislead you: this community land trust actually protects the habitats of the Black Howler Monkey. Black Howler Monkeys—or “baboons” in the local Creole—are found only in Mexico, Guatemala and Belize; as more and more forests are destroyed, their range decreases to smaller islands. In 1985, when the Community Baboon Sanctuary began, the monkey population in the Belize River Valley had dipped to less than 800.
That is, until 12 local landowners voluntarily signed pledges to preserve parts of their land as habitat for the Black Howler Monkey and other wildlife. This initial sanctuary spanned three square miles—enough space for the monkeys to survive, and eventually thrive as the sanctuary gained more land. Today, more than 200 landowners over seven villages have voluntarily committed to preserve forested land along the river and in key habitat corridors along and within property boundaries. The sanctuary now spreads over 20 square miles, and a recent census estimated the monkey population has hit 6,000—with a total population of 4,000 people in the seven villages combined, the valley can now boast more monkeys than people.
The first in the world of its kind, the sanctuary demonstrates an innovative model of conservation—all land is donated voluntarily, and all development projects are initiated and managed by the community, giving a real sense of collective purpose to the endeavor. After seeing the strict line drawn between preserved areas at Cockscomb Sanctuary, where no human activity was permitted in the jaguar territory, it’s interesting to see this opposite approach—integrating wildlife with people (though, monkeys probably make friendlier neighbors than the carnivores). Although the monkeys we saw lounging in trees seemed more docile than those roaming in uninterrupted forest, that’s part of the compromise of living together. The people depend on the monkeys to bring tourists to the area, generating income and jobs, and the monkeys depend on the people to leave them—and their habitats—alone.
Belize Expedition: Day 9
January 14, 2011
Belize Audubon Society: St. Herman’s Blue Hole National Park
Belizeans have a wicked sense of humor. “Hey, put yo chicken bones in hereh,” said Israel Senior, holding out a separate trash bag after we licked our fingers clean from a barbecue chicken lunch. “What are you keeping them for?” asked Drew. “I got to revive da chicken, mon,” he said, straight-faced.
Though it’s clear the park rangers we talked to understand the importance of conservation, they’re passionate with an ease that doesn’t seem imposed. The wildlife and attractions people come from all over the world to see are part of their daily lives, and they’re excited to learn about all of it—from “horse ball” fruits (named for obvious reasons) to red-bellied woodpeckers.
When we had to interview Dirk—Belize Audubon’s publicity director and the biggest jokester of the bunch—he got serious. “At Cockscomb Basin, the research showed we need to protect the Jaguars, to make a sanctuary—but in order to do that, we had to move the community out of there. Now, we’re working to educate the community in the importance of this conservation. We’re helping communities to take advantage of sanctuaries to help alleviate poverty.”
Belize already has the resources—hundreds of jaguars; a bright blue sinkhole; a mile-long network of caves, complete with a meandering underground river you can navigate with an inner tube and an headlamp; and enough birds to occupy anyone with a set of binoculars for a week. The challenge is getting communities to buy into the opportunity of tourism as the way to preserve these unique places and wildlife while also finding ways to support themselves from them.