Boards By Andrés Rúa. Andrés Rúa has been super busy making his signature items, cheese and bread boards from a selection of Puerto Rican hardwoods.
Put on show this afternoon and nearly all, promptly sold!
Globalworks along with Chris Corrigan and his staff, brought the whole 8th Grade of San Francisco Day School, CA, to Puerto Rico. The group split into three teams and each team spent two and a half days at Las Casas de la Selva, helping on a variety of physically demanding tasks, such as building a concrete wall-overhang, shoveling soil to replenish the organic gardens, hauling heavy rocks from the river to use as trail stabilizers, and pruning back overgrowth from trails. A super time with all the teams, 3t was chef and Andres and Norman were crew leaders. Thanks also to SFDS staff Michelle Phillips, Elise Holston, Steve Roberts, Marcella Anwandter and Loren Moye, San Fran Day School staff, and Globalworks leaders Chris Federer, Luiz Bertolo, and Scott Page.
Andrés Rúa gave an inspiring talk about the status of the wood industry in Puerto Rico to students of the School of Fine Arts In Old San Juan on 23rd April 2014. More at www.nuestramadera.org
Marx Rosado, Professor of Industrial Design at the School of Fine Art. Marx is encouraging his students to use materials that are local and sustainable. 
Johnny Dolphin, founder of Las Casas de la Selva, visited in early April and we also celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the project.
Here is a link to an album of images from Johnny’s stay.
L-R: Norman Greenhawk, 3t Vakil, Johnny Dolphin, Magha Garcia, Andrés Rúa
These great 4 year olds and staff from Headstart, Quebrada Arriba, Patillas, spent a really fun morning at Las Casas de la Selva, looking closely at all kind of plants and animals in the forest, with Andres and 3t.
George LoCascio from Bunkerhill Community College in Boston, returned to spend a few days at Las Casas de la Selva, along with Denise O’Malley, helping out on gardens and continuing with George’s ongoing Lepidoptera project. This consists of a species survey and a population survey. The species survey involves the use of aerial mesh traps, that carry fruits as bait to attract butterflies,that remain unharmed for proper identification. Along with aerial traps traditional hand nets are used to capture species for identification. Both methods are used to compile a list of Lepidoptera species that are found on the property. The population survey is along a predetermined 1.1 km transect that can be, and is, repeated to find population trends of different known species. George and Denise also continued with a project begun last year, measuring the volumes of tree trunks and using the density of the wood to determine the amount of carbon dioxide that has been sequestered within them. George has been returning to Las Casas frequently over the last few years. This was Denise’s second trip here.
4to. Simposio de Educación, Interpretación e Investigación en Bosques y Áreas Naturales,
Viernes, 21 de marzo de 2014, Edificio de Agencias Ambientales, Rio Piedras.
Speakers:
Introduction and closing by Frank H. Wadsworth
Carmen Guerrero Pérez, Secretaria – DRNA
Dayamaris Candelario, Directora – Centro Ambiental Santa Ana (CASA)
Astrid Maldonado, Asistente de Proyecto – Para la Naturaleza
Pedro Rios, Forest Staff Officer – US Forest Service
Glorienell Pérez Vélez, INTER (Receinto de Bayamon)
Edgardo González González – DRNA
Eliezer Nieves, Ayudant Especial de la Oficina de la Secretaria -DRNA
Christian Torres, Director – Parque Doña Inés (FLMM)
Waldemar Feliciano Estudiante Subgraduado – INTER (Bayamon)
Julio Vallejo González, Coordinador de Alcance Comunitario – San Juan ULTRA
Gracias Yaritza Bobonis y Dayamaris Candelario y voluntaries por une dia muy interesante.
A team of Fountain Valley High School students from Colorado Springs, CO, spent five days with us. Led by Andrés and 3t, the students completely emptied out the entire woodworking and machine shop, cleaned and organized all the tools, cleaned machines, took out all the wood stockand re-organized it, and left the workshop clean, organized and far more user-friendly! Students also worked in the nurseries and trails with Norman. Thank you to Deb Prantl and Vydia Garcia for tremendous team leadership, and a super big thanks to all the students who carried out such an incredible task. We really appreciated your help, and also the constant smiles and endless enthusiasm.
Please come back in the future!
Genny and Tim, spent 10 days with us during the Appalachian State University group’s visit, and helped with all aspects of the project. We really appreciated their wonderful company, super hard work, and enthusiasm! They are off to spend more time at our sister project Synergia Ranch, Center for Innovation and Retreats, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. https://synergiaranch.com/about-us/
Vella Lovell, a student at The Julliard School of Dance, Drama and Music, NY, volunteered at Las Casas de la Selva for the days that Vanderbilt University students were here. She helped with tree pruning, team management and all homestead duties.
Appalachian State University students worked really hard on a diversity of projects at Las Casas de la Selva; plastering the bunkhouse, making a ramp for access to the dining room, pruning, gardening, nursery work, moving soil, making a new compost, emptying the humanure compost ready for use, and many other tasks. Wow! We thank you all for being such wonderful company this last week. We’ll see you again!
