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Hurricane Maria

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 February 3, 2022

Latest Videos, Press, & Publications

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


PRESS & PUBLICATIONS

  1. In 2021, the Global Tree Campaign has partnered with Eye on the Rainforest, a Puerto Rican NGO, with the aims of conserving tree species most at risk of extinction by increasing the technical capacity of project partners and improving the conservation status of these tree species.  https://globaltrees.org/projects/securing-the-conservation-of-endemic-trees-in-puerto-rico/
  2. 3t made a virtual presentation to the Rotary Club of San Juan in September 2021.
  3. Conserve Magazine: https://www.naplesgarden.org/wp-ontent/uploads/2021/08/Conserve.pdf
    See pages 16 to 20. 3t’s photo of the Las Casas forest made the front cover!





Hurricane Maria
 April 27, 2018

Movie of Hurricane Maria at Las Casas de la Selva

Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm on the morning of 20th September, 2017, bringing winds at about 160 mph to an island that dodged the worst of Hurricane Irma’s destructive power only a few weeks previous. Tropic Ventures Sustainable Forestry and Rainforest Enrichment Project established 35 years ago, by the Institute of Ecotechnics in Puerto Rico, lay directly in her path.

Project Directors, Thrity (3t) Vakil and Andrés Rúa took shelter in the concrete bunker on the homestead, to emerge into a completely altered reality, a transformed world.

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, south east Puerto Rico.

Edited by Corinna MacNeice

Use headphones to appreciate the soundscape by Andrés Rúa.

Keep checking in on our Facebook page for current updates: https://www.facebook.com/eyeontherainforest/

Hurricane Maria News Volunteers
 April 16, 2018

City Winery Hurricane Recovery Brigade at Las Casas, January 2018

In January 2018, Camille Collazo and her team at Visit Rico organized donations to projects in Puerto Rico and a spectacular event help to several farms in Puerto Rico. Teams of 30 people from City Winery descended on these places for a day, along with founder Michael Dorf, and helped with debris removal from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Las Casas was chosen as a site to build a stage to have a gourmet dining and music experience. We milled our own fallen pine, and in one day a stage was built. The day was an energetic movement that words cannot describe, bringing much needed help to devastated areas at the Las Casas homestead.

The Visit Rico initiative received support from the Foundation for Puerto Rico, the Segarra Boerman Foundation, the non-profit organization Slow Food, PRxPR and private entities such as Para La Naturaleza and Microjuris. There were fundraisers with Cape Cod Farm, Gramercy Tavern with Chef Juan José, El Boricuá Fund in Minnesota and Crazy Legs from Rock Steady for Life. In addition, Farmer’s Markets outside of Puerto Rico expressed their solidarity with the cause.

Institute of Ecotechnics directors, Marie Harding & Freddy Dempster visited and were a huge help in all areas. Freddy set-up an LED light-system in all the communal areas of the homestead, and life has been upgraded immensely. Las Casas de la Selva, in the mountains will not get electricity for many more months. (Update: It was 9 months of no electricity).

Chef Natalia Vallejo (image above by Xavier Garcia), and her team, cooked up a storm in our kitchen, and with the LED lights in the dining room, the whole house staged the catering effort to feed over 200 people at night, with a three course meal.

Here’s Michael Dorf talking about his mission to Puerto Rico: https://youtu.be/sC4d6XYyeIg Thank you!!

The City Winery event, the story, and great footage of Las Casas de la Selva a few months after Hurricane Maria: https://youtu.be/XbIN3ShGa5A

And a great write-up:
https://www.foodandwine.com/travel/puerto-rico-relief-city-winery-dinner-concert

Thank you to all the volunteers who really worked hard, in the pouring rain, to set-up the stage area and footings, including: 3t, Andrés, Andrés Rúa Senior, Ramon Rúa, Axel Rúa, Kai Griebenow, Vanessa Acevedo, and Juanita Gonzalez.

Images: 3t Vakil.
Group photo by Marie Harding.

Events History of the project Hurricane Maria News Patillas
 October 16, 2017

In the Eye of Hurricane Maria 20 Sept 2017

On Wednesday 20th September Hurricane Maria made a direct hit on the island of Puerto Rico on the southeast shore. As a nearly Category 5 storm, with winds of 155 miles per hour, and 45 inches of rain, Maria lashed the island for longer than 30 hours. Thrity and Andrés were hunkered down in the library bunker at the project for the ten hour duration of this very violent hurricane.

Above: The Hurricane’s Path across Puerto Rico. The eye was 10 miles wide.

Las Casas de la Selva, Sustainable Forestry and Rainforest Enrichment project suffered devastating damage to trees and property within the eye of this extremely violent hurricane.

The project was still in recovery from the damage and results of Hurricane Irma which skirted the north coast of Puerto Rico on 6th September 2017.

Thrity Vakil, Project Director, has left the island two weeks after the hurricane, to raise funds for rebuilding the project.

Technical director Andrés Rúa remains on the ground at the project, and is keeping us updated on everything when he can find cell signal in the metropolitan areas of San Juan.

With the entire infrastructure of the island devastated, as of 7th October, 90% of the island’s people are without electricity or cell signal, and there are gas and diesel shortages, along with food, water, and health issues, facing the entire population of the island.

We will prevail in this very difficult time, and faced with the difficult task of asking for help.
If any of you are able to donate any funds towards getting us back on our feet, it will be very much appreciated.

The Institute of Ecotechnics, (a US 501 c 3), has set up a Las Casas Disaster Relief Fund and we are grateful for any help you can give. Go to this page to click the donate button.

Or please send a check payable to Institute of Ecotechnics with a note for Las Casas Disaster Fund. Send to: 26, Synergia Road, Santa Fe, NM, 87508.

Andrés and 3t, along with the founders of Las Casas de la Selva, the Directors of The Institute of Ecotechnics, thank you, and are eternally grateful for your support in this exceptionally difficult time.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/what-happened-in-puerto-rico-a-timeline-of-hurricane-maria/541956/

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