During the month of February I focused mainly on identifying and labeling the trails that were not yet labeled (High Forest, Capirona, Quebrada, Big Tree) and helping Javier Espejos, a researcher from Oliver Phillips group, with his monthly duties at the lodge. As I mention below, other duties have also been acknowledged.


Library

The library is cleaned and the books are frequently collected from tourists, guides, and myself by the practicing guides (Elis Ferreyros and Ella Vento), who care well for the library.


English Training

During the month of February, some English training has been taking place at the lodge, particularly with two of three training guides, the only “true” guide at the lodge at this moment, Edwin, has a descent knowledge of the English language, therefore he is able to interact with tourists who only speak English. Moreover, due to a busy month conducting other RN duties, I have only been able to conduct three one-hour long classes for the guides and a couple of staff members, and about an hour a week of English conversation with the practicing guides. English training should be more fruitfull during the month of March, since there is much pressure from the administrator to train the guides And staff.


Nature Talks

As usual, the caiman talks have been conducted by the guide, Edwin, in Englishm abd this month also saw the caiman talk successfully conducted in Spanish by the two practicing guides; once by Elis and twice by Ella! On the other hand, I’m still in the process of developing a talk about the natives in this area. Moreover, I am now able to share some fundamental knowledge about the native communities of this area, the communal reservation, and other aspects of their lives with tourists. As I mentioned in my previous report, I would also like to develop a talk about Sustainable Development in the area.


Medicinal Garden

The medicinal garden needs some renovation. During the next month I plan to put up new signs and clean up the garden. There are also some medicinal plants in the forests that could be added to the garden, i.e. Coca, Cordoncillo, Yarinilla, Quinina, etc...


Discovery Center

The center has undergone some deep cleaning this past month. Also, there are plans to add and update some new information in the future. For example, results from the newly installed climate center and new drawings and pictures of the flora and fauna will be added to the Discovery Center. General feedback from tourists who visit the center has been positive.


Trails

As I mention in the introduction, I have been identifying the trails that need markings and I have stareted to mark the High Forest trail (up to 1000m). The trails that need markings are: High Forest, Capirona, Quebrada, Big Tree.


Weather Log



**Please note: The weather station that was installed on January compiles a more complete climate analysis in its memory, for up to a year. I was counting on downloading all of this information for the month of February and sending it with this report, but the researcher working on the station suggested that I send the complete weather log for the month of February together with the March report, since he did not have the cable to down load this information into the computer at the time. Therefore, I’ll send the complete weather log, for February and March in the next report.


Research and Developments

Javier Espejos, who is part of Oliver Phillips’ research group, has also joined us the last two weeks of this month, in order to do some updating of the analysis being conducted within two of their 100m2 parcels. He will be coming at the end of each month I order to record new information and collect the litter fall from the litter traps that have been installed within their two parcels. Since this litter fall has two be collected every two weeks, I will be responsible for collecting it at the first half of each month. I have also been helping Javier in other tasks like, installing dendometers on trees, locating trees that needed revision of measurements, carrying equipment to and from the parcels, and taking notes of tree measurements.


Environmental Monitoring Programs

• Giant Otter Project

The month of February saw less otters than January. Cocococha was visited at least 20 times this month, but the ratio of sightings were about half as little as that of the previous month.