A – Democracy Prep Charter High School – New York, NY B – Democracy Prep Harlem High School – Harlem, NY C – Democracy Prep Harlem Prep High School – Harlem, NY D – Democracy Prep Bronx Prep High School – Bronx, NY E – Democracy Prep Endurance High School – New York, NY
Democracy Prep Public Schools is a growing network of free, open-enrollment, high-performing public charter schools committed to preparing students for success in college and active citizenship. These five teams of New York teens came to participate at Las Casas de la Selva, Sustainable Forestry Project, Patillas, and worked outside in heavy rains and muddy conditions, helping with clearing overgrowth, clearing an area for more tree sapling storage under shade, digging holes for tree planting, and cleaning up various nursery areas. Comfort zones were broken down swiftly, but happy to report big smiles all around. We had a great time with these young students who are all on their way to great achievements. We salute you all. Thanks also to the staff who brought each team and Vamanos Tours for getting them all in and out safely. Thanks to Monique Nieves and Vanessa Acevedo for the delicious cuisine.
Mercury, a visiting artist from New York, and 3t, worked with students out in the forest on the ethnobotanical trail. The students were lucky to get some presentations from project volunteers George Locascio, a butterfly expert who teaches at Mount Wachusett Community College, and Brian Connolly, a botanist who is a professor at Eastern Connecticut State University.
3t was thrilled to get students excited to plant seeds of rare endemic Simarouba tulae.Lawrence Academy team 12th- 14th March 2022. Thank you!Lawrence Academy team 11-12th March 2022. Thank you!!
Fountain Valley High School students, with Deb and Britta, group leaders, stayed in March, and helped 3t with many tasks, including re-clothing the hoop nursery, repotting young trees, and planting some fruit trees. Thanks to Ingrid Datica, and Vanessa Acevedo for wonderful cuisine and the students for nighttime entertainment. Thank you for continuing your annual service work with us, since 2014.
Vamanos Tours brought a wonderful team of 25 teens and 3 staff, from Meridian School, Boston, USA to stay for two days and help out in all areas. We cleared a bank in preparation for a future project and worked on the ethnobotanical trail. Thanks to Monique Nieves for delicious vegetarian food, and to Vanessa Acevedo for all homestead help.
Thank you to Globalworks for bringing us this enthusiastic group of teens who helped with clearing the land in preparation for a new project. We really appreciated the effort! Thank you to Ari Wildau and Randall Vargas Guido, Globalworks, trip leaders.
The New School of the Anthropocene Symposium is an ongoing series of unscripted video dialogues launched to coincide with the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) held in Glasgow in Autumn 2021. The framework for discussion is bio-political emergency: a question of unimaginable climate catastrophe, species extinction and the undermining of the very notion of civil society and its reciprocal practices. This is our pivotal question:
How can the university be reshaped to address these issues in the context of its own accelerating crises of marketisation, instrumentalism and the systematic denigration of arts and humanities subjects?
The Symposium pairs leading cultural figures from neighbouring fields with the intention of allowing free-ranging conversation, which is loosely tied into the New School’s wider educational enquiry.
For Tropic Ventures Research & Education Foundation, 2021 began with Naples Botanical Garden in Florida securing a grant from the Association of Zoological Horticulture to fund the building of a new tree nursery at our project in Patillas, Puerto Rico, after the devastation of all our tree nurseries in Hurricane Maria in 2017. Following this, the 2021 Botanical Gardens Conservation International & Global Tree Campaign agreement and grant opportunity to survey for two threatened endemic species was a huge accomplishment; a proposal for the conservation of two Puerto Rican endemic trees, Garcinia portoricensis & Ravenia urbanii. Thrity Vakil, director of TVREF, immediately set about creating a diverse team comprised of plant and tree experts, and experts in the fields of ecology, biology, taxonomy, bryology, mycology, and zoology. (TVREF is also known as Eye on the Rainforest, which is the name of its website).
Take a short drone flight over Las Casas de la Selva, Sustainable Forestry & Rainforest Enrichment Project, established in 1983 in Patillas, Puerto Rico. August 2021. Footage by Brent Foley, Production by Alfredo Lopez.
Earthday Botanical Survey 2021, at Las Casas de la Selva, Sustainable forestry & Rainforest Enrichment Project in Patillas, Puerto Rico. Filmwork: Raymesh Cintron, Narrator: 3t Vakil, Soundtrack: Andrés Rúa
“Re-examining Crises as Opportunities for Change: Sustainable Forestry, Log salvage, and Hardwood production after extreme social, ecological & technological disturbances in Puerto Rico.” Since 2014, the Yale University Chapter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters (ISTF) has awarded an Innovation Prize at its annual conference to honor outstanding initiatives and ideas related to tropical forest use and conservation. Thrity was selected as one of three finalists to tell the story of Las Casas de la Selva, Puerto Rico Hardwoods, and the Institute of Ecotechnics. February 2021 Images and footage: 3t Vakil, Andrés Rúa, Tom Marvel, & Greg Byers.
Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm on the morning of 20th September 2017. Tropic Ventures Sustainable Forestry and Rainforest Enrichment Project established 35 years ago, lay directly in her path. This is 3t’s visual story of the impact of Hurricane Maria on the rainforest project in Patillas, on the land known as Las Casas de la Selva, southeast Puerto Rico.
Film and photos by 3t Vakil, and Andrés Rúa. Edited by Corinna MacNeice. Use headphones to appreciate the soundscape.
“Seas, rain forests, and saving coral reefs” Long Lost Friends talks with 3T Vakil
“Painting and saving forests in Puerto Rico” Long Lost Friends talks with 3T Vakil
“Saving Endangered Trees” Long Lost Friends talks with 3T Vakil
Vamonos Tours have been collaborating with us for several years now and bringing groups of people from all over the world to stay for a while in the rainforest, volunteering on many fun tasks.
This team from Massachusetts stayed for three nights and helped with trails, compost management, nursery cleaning and re-organizing, putting in new weedcloth and spreading gravel on the ground. An incredible time was had by all, and thanks to Magha Garcia for the delicious, nutritious food!
If you are looking to bring a group to Puerto Rico, don’t hesistate to get in touch with Bernardo or Jorge at Vamonos. https://www.vamonostours.com/about-us/
26-29th July 2021: Thanks to this intrepid team of teens who worked with 3t clearing the overgrowth on our main drive from the gate, and also work in the nursery. This team spent three nights with us. Thanks to Magha Garcia and Milly Santiago for the cuisine that kept the team well fed.
Big thanks also to Global Works Trip Leader, Eric Uslander, and to the staff who stayed with us: Lindsey Storm, Talia Santos, and James Palma Harrera.
Global Works provides service trips for teens and school travel programs with community service, cultural exchange, language immersion, and adventure. They make sure that teens have an unforgettable experience abroad, make friends for a lifetime, have lessons in leadership, and make impactful change! For more on their programs: https://www.globalworkstravel.com/
We have been collaborating with Global Works since 2003, and we really value the long-term relationship with staff and the teens who return as young aduts to continue a relationship with our project.
