These intrepid students from Fountain Valley High School, Colorado Springs spent 5 days of hard labor on projects ranging from nursery work and trail-blazing with 3t, to roadwork with Andres, and woodworking with Ricardo and Alex. This is the third year of FVS students volunteering at Las Casas de la Selva. We are honored to have worked alongside you all. Welcome back anytime! Thanks to Deb and Brett, awesome staff who accompanied the students. Also huge thanks to Magha Garcia for the delicious food. Check back in the coming weeks for more pix.
This was our 2016 Appalachian State University Team of hardworking volunteers on their Alternative Service Experience during Spring Break. We all worked on a multitude of tasks at Las Casas de la Selva, including organization of the sheds and workshop, deconstruction of an old roof, and ditch-digging for a new floor. AS Staff member, Mona helped in the library with cleaning abd book maintenance and care. We are thrilled every year to receive students from App State and every year just gets better. Abbie (her second year at Las Casas de la Selva) and Lucas – hats off to you for great team leadership. We thank you all for your labors, along with the fine company. See you soon again. Thanks also to Lizbeth Velez for participation with the groups, helping in all aspects of management.
Great team from Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA. This team built the two extra showers, that we need as some of our groups in the year are over 15 people. The year’s compost pile was emptied and a new one started. Thank you Carsen and Kris for leading the team and thank you all for such tremendous company and hard work. This team lived in a mountain cloud for the most part of their time here. It rained a lot!
We are really thankful that individuals decide to come and volunteer their talents, time, and labor at Las Casas de la Selva. The project is a perfect place to immerse yourself into a new biome: the rainforest of Puerto Rico!
Special thanks to Tim Dehm, who stayed for three months and looked after Las Casas de la Selva for the month of October, in 2015, whilst 3t and Andres attended the annual Synergist Conference, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
We will always share news of a Walk-Talk Tour. Join our email list to stay informed of this and other events at Las Casas de la Selva.
WALK-TALK-TOUR -This tour will be in English. 9.30am-2.00pm, Sunday 31st January, 2016. Cost: $20.00 per head includes lunch. (Children under 10 years free.)
Where: In the homestead, forest, and woodshop facilities of Sustainable Forestry Project, Las Casas de la Selva, Patillas, Puerto Rico. Disabled facilities very limited.
Clothing: Please wear suitable shoes or boots for a forest walk. Open-toed sandals, or flip flops are not suitable at all on uneven paths and potentially muddy trails. Wear long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt. We reserve the right to refuse entry to the forest to anyone unsuitably dressed.
Schedule: 9.30am: Coffee and Cake, orientation Digital presentation of the history of Las Casas de la Selva and ongoing work, and introduction to Puerto Rico Hardwoods. 11.00am: Guided Forest walk to see plantations, identify trees, understand the history of land-use, & current projects, including planting of endangered tree species. 12.30pm: Gourmet lunch with organic salad, fruit juices, tea and coffee. 1.00pm: Tour of the wood workshop, drying sheds, & projects in progress. An opportunity to buy or order wood, or beautiful hardwood products seen at our homestead. 2.00pm: Group Photo and Finish.
BOOK NOW: Please send an email with the following info to 3t at: wanderwoman3t@gmail.com • How many people? • Dietary restrictions (meat/veg) or allergies if any. Please ask for directions if needed.
See you here! 3t and Andres Some of the products that will be available.
Back row L-R: Inset, Israel Guzman, Herb Wexler, Janet Richards, Kamal Daghistani, Ziyou Yang, Diane Bentz, Julio Rodriguez. Front: Magha Garcia, Marigail Bentz, Chari Kauffman, Danny Nip, Patricia Salomon, Riona Kobayashi, 3t Vakil, Andres Rua.
Israel Guzman, President of SOPI, led the team into the forest for the first Winter Bird Surveys at Las Casas de la Selva. Marta Edgar previously carried out two years of surveys in the summer months with Earthwatch volunteers.
Magha gave a tostone-making class.
Through a presentation the team learnt about the work of SOPI and preliminary training in identifying birds of the area, and below, the elusive Warbler that hasn’t been seen in this region for several years.
A wonderful dinner at Habitarte, a project run by Wanda Rodriguez and Ricardo Valles Perez (below).
With 3t, the team also carried out the monitoring and care of nearly 300 saplings of critically endangered trees.
Finally, we had a great New Years Party. Thank you to everyone who contributed time and energy into making this a seriously fun-filled Earthwatch Expedition. Happy New Year!
Globalworks brought the whole of the 8th Grade from San Francisco Day School to Las Casas de la Selva, May 2015.
We hosted three teams consecutively, for three days each. This wonderful bunch of teens planted critically endangered endemic Cornutia obovata trees in the forest.
Thanks to SFDS teacher Chris Corrigan for his tremendous leadership skills, and the enthusiasm he has brought to Las Casas over the last several years on Globalworks expeditions. Thanks to all the wonderful staff and students for the hard-work planting these Cornutia obovata out in the forest, and for the wonderful evenings back at the homestead. We salute you all! Thank you also to Globalworks staff, and to Las Casas volunteers Alfredo Lopez and Helen Galli, for all their help. All pix by 3t Vakil unless otherwise credited.
The mahoe tree, Talipariti elatum, was planted nearly 30 years ago at Las Casas de la Selva, and we are currently thinning the mahoe plantations. This rare and beautiful wood is available in various dimensions, including very large slabs. Help support sustainable forestry in Puerto Rico by buying our wood, and sharing this info widely.
All Mahoe lumber at $20-$24 per board foot, unless otherwise stated. Images show both side of each piece.
Please ask if you want the slabs cut smaller and/or fitted into Flat Rate mailing boxes. A large Flat rate box to USA is $18.95 Priority Mail Large Flat Rate Boxes Size A) 23-11/16″ x 11-3/4″ x 3″ Size B)12″ x 12″ x 5-1/2″
All dimensions are bigger than the specs below and the average width is taken on tapered slabs. Please contact us for Mahoe turning and carving blanks.
Q: 59″ x 5.5″ x 1″=2.25 board feet =$45.00 R: 65″x 5.5″ x 1″ =2.48 board feet =$49.60
I: 48″ x 8″ x 1″= 2.66bft = $47.88 (discounted for check on one end) J: 47″ x 6.5″ x 1″= 2.12bft =$42.40 K: 57″ x 6″ x 1″ = 2.37bft =$47.40 L: 70″ x 5″ x 1″ = 2.43bft = $48.60 SOLD
H: 72″ x 8.5″ x 1.75″ = 7.43bft = $148.60 SOLD
G: 71″ x 6″ x 2.25″=6.65bft =$133.00 SOLD
F: 48″ x 12″ x 1.75″=7bft=$168.00 A real primo slab. SOLD
In April this ebullient group of students from the Department of Fine Arts, University of Puerto Rico, arrived on a day trip to find out more about the forest plantations at Las Casas de la Selva, and to see the timber operation; the sawmill, drying shed, and workshop. Everyone was wowed by our wood collection, that we inherited from Jose Mari Mutt, and have been adding to. Eyes opened wide at the beauty of these different and relatively unknown hardwoods that Puerto Rico has. Many discussions ensued about sustainable use of forest resources, especially wood, and later all left smiling, having bought some of our wood to create their latest projects. We look forward to seeing the results soon.
Daniel DioGuardi and Karen Babis volunteered in 2015, getting down and dirty on homestead clean-ups and helping on logistics with an Earthwatch teen team
Tim Dehm has volunteered at Las Casas de la Selva since late September 2015. He is taking a break and hopes to return in 2016. Tim managed the homestead whilst 3t and Andrés were at the Annual Institute of Ecotechnics Conference in Santa Fe, NM. Tim is working on fine-woodworking along with a host of other project responsibilities.
L-R: Luis Martínez Rodríguez, Ruth (Tata) Santiago, Wanda I. Rodríguez Rivera,Yaminnette Rodríguez, Ricardo Valle Pérez & Tim Dehm
William Davidowski, is retired, and since August 2015 volunteers his time helping in the wood-shop, making products to sell, passing on his fine woodworking knowledge to ready, able, and willing apprentices.
Natalie Harrison dropped in for a couple of weeks in December 2015 to help with all and everything.
CEO of The Institute for Regional Conservation, Craig van der Heiden, and his wife Sheryl, stopped in for a day to see the project and understand a bit more about what we do here.
Kamal Dagistani volunteered for ten days and helped with all logistics for an Earthwatch team 28th Dec 2015- 6th Jan 2016.
Wanda Rodriguez, from Guayama volunteered on gardens.
Big Thanks to all our volunteers in 2015. Whether here for long or short stays, every little bit of help -helps!!
Earthwatch Team 4, July 2015. This team of teenage Earthwatchers spent time in the forest with 3t collecting seedlings, planting and monitoring endangered endemic tree species, and time with Norman in Hormiga Valley on herpetological surveys. Karen Babis,an Earthwatch volunteer in the past and her partner, Daniel Dioguardi spent time at the project and helped out in the field. Big thanks to Earthwatch Program Manager, Kyle Hutton, (third from left in image below), and Lena Cosentino for great teen team leadership. Myriam Bourassa made this wonderful video (https://youtu.be/n1me_5p_CLc) of her time here.
Images by 3t Vakil, Karen Babis, Andres Rua, Lena Cosentino, and Daniel DioGuardi 2015
If you are ready for a life challenge, interested in your personal development, and feel that you have useful skills and proficiency, or perhaps would like to learn how to do something completely new and different, hold a genuine love of the natural world, and want to live with other people and experience cultural changes, and life in another biome, please contact us. We welcome you to participate in VolunTREEadventure, the project’s total system as a volunteer. Three weeks is a good way to start.
Alfredo Lopez Nieves
Cho Hee Schrader and Chris DeForce
Hellen Galli
Stratton Yatron & Matt
Will Robinson
We give big thanks and appreciation to everyone that comes to live with us and volunteer their time and energy; we meet as strangers and leave as friends. Andres, 3t, and Magha.
Thank you Earthwatchers for your help in herpetological surveys, planting of endangered endemic trees, Cornutia obovata and Styrax portoricensis, and for help in the nursery re-potting seedlings collected from the previous year.
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Principal Investigators: Dr. Mark Nelson, 3t Vakil, Norman Greenhawk.
2015 Images by 3t Vakil, Lisa Bennet, and Susannah Garrett.
Joel Kaufman of Ellicott City, MD, has created this fine intarsia piece in about 6 months, and we are honored to share it with you. The pattern was replicated from a Phillip Ratner tapestry. There are 50 different wood species using no stains or coloring with over 400 individual pieces. It has over 100 shims and measures 19” x 35”.
Joel: “The blue mahoe pieces are the water on both sides of the ark, the whale’s spout of water (this is where I love the varying shades of blue mahoe), the translucent pieces through the whale and the stripe on one of the people on the ark. No other wood I could find had these various shades of blue/purple/green and it was very easy to cut, shape, sand and finish”.
Using tested methods, humanure composting is underway at Las Casas de la Selva with impressive results. 3t has been very successfully composting humanure for over a decade. The process is exactly the same as an ordinary compost and along with depositing the humanure, (feces & urine), the compost pile is augmented with garden prunings, grass cuttings, leaves, etc. This pile is left to sit for at least a year and two months before use. The quality of this humus is phenomenal fertilizer for plant growing.
Shavings from the planer, all hardwoods from our forest, no treated wood. Smells great too.
Regular toilets usually flush humanure away into septic tanks using clean water, but it could instead be converted, through composting, into lush vegetative growth. Humanure is a valuable resource and saves a ton of water. These humanure toilets were built at Las Casas de la Selva, by Andres and 3t in February 2013, and we have been collecting all our volunteers valuable deposits ever since.
Deep colored, rich compost ready for using in the gardens. You can’t buy this anywhere!
In April 2015, we were fortunate enough to receive two teams from the Northshore YMCA in Salem, MA. These teams all got involved with various tasks that ranged from creating a new trail, making a dam, to setting up new tables in our nursery and moving all the saplings from last year’s collections into the nursery. A good clean up of the wood drying shed was also really appreciated. Special thanks to staff, Matt Buchanen, John Brinkmanship, Kat Moser, and AnnMarie Green for the first group, and the second group, Graeme Marcoux, Cat Marcoux and Katie Coleman.
As always a huge thank you to all these volunteers who shared their lives with us in April 2015.
Mahoe,Hibiscus elatus All dimensions are in inches and all slabs are slightly larger than stated. All pieces have been planed on both sides. Ends are Anchor-sealed. Shipping is not included, send an email for a quote.
1) Your shipping address. 2) Your shipping preference for a quote: USPS Priority (4-6 days) or USPS Retail Ground (14-18 days) .
We accept secure payments through Paypal.
Mahoe,Hibiscus elatus, is a large forest tree endemic to Jamaica, Cuba, and now naturalized in Puerto Rico. The straight stems of mature specimens can rise to a height of 80 feet, with trunk diameters of 12 to 18 inches, on favorable sites attaining diameters of 36 inches. Its relatively fast growth makes mahoe a highly suitable candidate for sustainable forestry management. The leaves are long-stalked heart-shaped, flowers are large and funnel shaped, usually red, but occasionally yellow or orange. Mahoe is a moderately hard wood with a specific gravity of 0.58-0.62. The heartwood is very durable, highly resistant to attack by decay fungus, and resistant to subterranean termites. The fairly straight grain is richly variegated with shades of steely blues, metal grays, deep purples and pinks, olive greens and yellows, creams and browns, along with an elegant chatoyance in the wood. The narrow sapwood is pale white and subtly flecked, creating an attractive contrast with the heartwood. From reports and our own experience, the timber is generally easy to saw, plane, route, mould, mortise, carve, glue, nail, screw, sand, and turn, with a natural gloss in the wood when finished. It responds very well to both hand and machine tools in all woodworking operations. The wood has a musical quality and has been traditionally used in the making of cuatros, (puertorican guitars). Fine boxes, furnitures, inlay works, floors, details, turned pieces, exquisite jewelleries, sculptures, and ancient board games, have been, and demand to be transformed from the Mahoe. Architects, furniture-makers, designers, artists & wood lovers will find a charm in working with this wood.
