Work

In between exploring the park I have begun my Internship as Greenhouse Manager.  There is lots of work to be done at the Estancia Greenhouse but I have been given a project to design and construct small greenhouses for each of the 5 Guardaparques or Park Rangers.  Each one has a slightly different job and I have visited 3 so far.  The first guardaparque I visited was Daniel, who is leading the Huemel study.  Huemel are a critically endangered species of deer endemic to Patagonia and Daniel tracks them on horseback using radio telemetry.  He lives in an incredible meadow a few hundred meters above Lago Cochrane, which forms part of the southern boarder of PNP.  Surrounded by mountains and beech forests, Daniel has a great place to do some homesteading and I spent 2 days observing his property.

Casa de Guardaparque Daniel near Lago Cochrane.

This morning I went out on a quick trip to visit two more guardaparques, Edward Castro, who manages the cows and René, who shepherds the sheep.  Each has a house in a different beautiful location of the park.  I'm going to head back to Daniels place in the next day or so to build the greenhouse, followed by Eduard and Rene.  The Patagonian wind is especially strong at René’s house and I will be building low-lying cold frames to compensate for it.  They are in a big hurry to get the greenhouses up for use this summer, which is ok but means less time for good design.  My supervisor wants me to design the greenhouses to last 4 years, with the plastic being replaced every year.  It is unfortunate that a longer-term design is not desired but we are working with intense weather conditions and a very limited budged so I am just going to have to roll with it.  Nonetheless I'm going do the best I can.  We definitely are not using dimensional lumber and nice tools, more like logs and rusty nails!

Luigi (left) sharing mate with Guardilaparque Edward Castro (right)

It is really exciting what is happening here with the park but it has not been without some things being sacrificed.  Right now it is the private property of Doug and Kris Tompkins and they had lots of ideals towards putting in a long-term garden.  They have beautiful agricultural projects around Chile and Argentina but the reality of the situation is that this park is going to be turned over to CONAF, (Chilean Government division that manages Natural Resources).  Once this happens a lot is going to change.  The park will still be here, and the land protected but it is highly doubtful that the agriculture will stay.  Even sadder is the fact that many of the local Chileans like the Guardaparques will probably have to find other jobs once the park is handed over.  However, this is 4-8 years down the road still, and a lot could change between now and then.  I find inspiration in that hope, and knowing that whatever I do today will contribute to local food production for the next few years.

Estancia Chacabuco Greenhouses and Garden