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Friends of Las Casas de la Selva
 November 29, 2015

Frank H. Wadsworth 100 years old Dec 2015

Congratulations to our most favorite forester. Frank we salute you highly on this most auspicious day.
Happy 100th Birthday!

  • Frank Wadsworth & Johnny Dolphin
  • Johnny Dolphin, Eliezer Nieves Rodriguez, (‎PR DNER) & Andrés Rúa
  • Frank and his wife, Isabel Colorado
  • Mycologist, botanist, Jean Lodge
  • Ornithologist, Joe M. Wunderle
  • Forester, Peter L. Weaver
  • Andrés and historian, Jorge Nieves.
  • 3t, Nick Brockaw, Director of The Institute for Tropical Ecosystem Studies (ITES) and Director of the Luquillo LTER Program, & Johnny Dolphin
  • Peter Weaver & 3t
Education Events Forest products Forestry News Wood
 November 22, 2015

Fiesta del Arbol November 2015

This event was dedicated to forester Dr. Frank Wadsworth, and Andrés presented a plaque to celebrate his 100th birthday.

We had a table to show off some of our latest products, cheese boards, chopping boards, tostoneras, and samples of Puertorican hardwoods.

  • 3t with Isabelita, Frank’s wife, a great supporter of our project, and products!
  • Andrés with Christian Torres, Director of FLMM.
  • Andrés with Dr. Ariel Lugo, Director of the International Institute of Tropical Forestry.
Fine wood product Forest products Wood Woodwork Woodworker
 November 8, 2015

Mahoe Madness August 2015

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

Education Fine wood product Forest products Forestry Wood Woodwork
 November 4, 2015

Students from University of PR – Department of Fine Art

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.

23 April, 2015
Earthwatch Volunteers
 October 17, 2015

Volunteers and Visitors Oct Nov Dec 2015

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 Earthwatch gallery Endangered plants Herpetology Rare trees Tree planting Volunteer Groups Volunteers
 July 20, 2015

Earthwatch Team 4 July 2015

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

Friends of Las Casas de la Selva
 July 12, 2015

July 2015 VolunTREEadventures

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.
Earthwatch Earthwatch gallery Endangered plants Herpetology Rare trees Research & Education Tvref Collaboration Volunteer Groups Volunteers
 June 26, 2015

Earthwatch Team 2 June 2015

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.

  • OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
  • OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Principal Investigators: Dr. Mark Nelson, 3t Vakil, Norman Greenhawk.

2015 Images by 3t Vakil, Lisa Bennet, and Susannah Garrett.

Fine wood product Forest products Wood Woodwork Woodworker
 May 12, 2015

Fine Artist and our Mahoe Hardwood- May 2015

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”.

Here is a link to the process:

Humanure Waste management
 May 8, 2015

Humanure Toilets

USING THIS TOILET

1) Make your deposit, along with toilet paper.

2) Cover completely with sawdust. No odors.

3) Close the toilet lid. Keep it clean.

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!

Thinking about waste management intelligently!

Thanks to Mark Nelson and Joseph Jenkins

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