As Exchange Teachers we were invited to stay at Hacienda La Cruz for a time to help teach students about protecg the environment. Each day different students would come and work with us. At the end of our stay with Jose we gave him a monatary gift from our students back home to aide in the reforestation.
The La Cruz Habitat Protection Project is based at Hacienda La Cruz in Central Michoacan near the town of Santa Clara del Cobre. Michoacan is the State that runs from the transvolcanic mountains west of Mexico City to the Pacific Ocean. Jose Alvarez Alcala bought Hacienda La Cruz, a 400 year old hacienda in 1983. After living in the area for a number of years, he saw what was happening to the monarch overwintering areas and two lakes near Hacienda La Cruz, Lake Patzcuaro and Lake Ziruhuen. Lake Patzcuaro is the site of the world famous butterfly fishing boats. It is now almost completely dead because of the effects of deforestation. Lake Ziruhuen is still fairly pristine, but it is becoming badly degraded.
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We always eat lunch with the teachers and students on the Veranda and then gave them gifts from our students back home.
Reforestation is a new program which is intended to try to save the oyamel forests. The new effort, reforestation of ejido lands in the monarch overwintering area, started in 1997 following the creation of the La Cruz Habitat Protection Project. The La Cruz Project is giving the ejidatarios an alternative they have never had before.
Reforestation accomplishes several things. First of all, it replaces forests on lands which have been cleared for corn and oats. It provides wood for domestic uses. As the trees on the reforested lands mature, the trees will provide income that the ejidatarios need badly. His goal is to take some of the pressure off the remaining oyamel forest. And most importantly, the monarchs may be able to continue their wondrous journey.
In July of 1997, slightly more than 7,000 oyamel and pine seedlings were planted at one of the communities in the monarch overwintering area, ejido El Rosario. This year, it was possible to plant 40,000 seedlings. The goal is to plant at least 100,000 seedlings a year. The La Cruz Project is the first project of its type. It is an entirely volunteer effort and it is dependent on the help that it receives from contributions it receives from individuals from the United States, Canada, and other countries. ( Mostly Teachers and students involved in the Monarch Teachers Network.)
Jose Alvarez showing us a cone
Trees grow rapidly in Michoacan. It takes 17 to 20 years for a seedling to reach maturity. New seedlings will be planted and the reforested areas will expand. The people will have their new forests and the monarchs will have their overwintering santuaries
Please come back to se all the pics of planting thye are currently processing
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Comments: 9
40,000 was a good start on it :)!!!!
I don't buy into the philosophy that money is the root of all evil, but when I think about the destruction of the rainforest for profit - it makes me furious. The few poor farmers who burnt their own, just didn't know any better and most of them did not have the impact big business had. I want them to live in the deforested disaster they have created!