Puerto Edén Week 2

By Naomi Fein, Pitzer College

~ October 14-21

After a week of intensive immersion in Puerto Edén, I began to feel the town really growing on me. Six days ago I knew this place as one of the most isolated communities in the world and an environmental case study for sustainable tree harvesting within a national park. Now I know the families of many fisherman I wave to boating by, the personalities of the stray dogs excitedly following me, and the Latin/Spanish/English names of each plant and bird along the shore and boardwalks. I already feel preemptive nostalgia for this place when I walk by the concrete soccer field on the dock and realize I know almost every one of the kids playing (and have had a conversation or shared maté with them and their families at some point in the past week.) I knew the connection we felt with these people was mutual when we boarded the 13-hour ferry on October 21, and several families boated to the dock to see us off

Week two consisted of solidifying our social connections, learning about the conservation challenges facing Puerto Edén, and conducting field work on ciprés trees and general plant coverage in the peatlands. A few highlights for us included:

~Two visits to Raul Edén’s house to learn more about the Kawésqar’s 6,000 year history in the area. Raul told us about growing up nomadically, hunting sea lions and free diving for mussles. He also asked us to record him speaking Kawésqar, as he is one of the last 5 living people to speak the language.

~Meeting with CONAF over coffee to discuss ciprés harvesting and eco-tourism potential within Bernard O’Higgins National Park- the largest national park in South America and second largest in the world.

~Our first field day via boat on the 15^th ! We set out navigating through the beautiful fjords to a field site about an hour away. Here we learned to identify loads of new bog plant species and climbed around a wild, mossy, fairyland forest.

~Conducting plot surveys in the peatlands to understand how harvesting standing dead ciprés will affect the ecosystem with potential future logging.

~A two day backpacking trip, accompanied by our loyal host dog Rocky, to conduct plant transects and plot surveys. We camped next to a beautiful lake where we got to swim and enjoy the afternoon sunshine (such a treat after the first week of rain!)

~Visiting the local elementary school for a fun cultural exchange, environmental education, and a bird-watching walk around town. We promised to send copies of our Chilean bird ID books so the kids can continue learning about the unique nature in their own backyard.

~13- hour ferryride back to Tortel, most of which was spent studying plant and bird species for our Natural History exam the next day. We watched sunset from the deck, spotting albatross, sea lions, and dolphins.

Overall, week two deepened my understandings of the complex social, economic, cultural, and environmental challenges facing Puerto Edén. I think about returning there in 10 or 20 years- what will the town look like? Will it still be there? Will tourism have exploded? Will the people find a way to harvest essential resources sustainably? We are all currently writing essays on these difficult and thought-provoking questions. We returned to Tortel on September 21^st, camped, and drove back to Cochrane the 22^ndafter a natural history exam on local flora. Below are a few snapshops from this week.