Hello to all my friends, family and followers! I have a very exciting update to 2019 that I want to publish today, this is the precursor to a bilingual project proposal post on @quintaesencia that will be submitted to @co2fund as a possible, official COCO project.

There are quite a few moving pieces in this one, so I would appreciate any that take the opportunity to try to understand and make feedback. A new Project Builder post will land tonight or tomorrow.

Meet Bocconia Frutescens, a native pioneer species that has come to be very important to us. Over the last 8 years, my wife an I have returned to the mountain to observe and design agroforestry systems, and this nifty volunteer made the list very quick. Early on, I was even questioned about the wisdom of planting this weed - of course I would plant and observe any woody shrub or bigger.

There are two trees in the picture above, notice the wavy branches, the funny shaped leaves and the HUGE flower/fruit sacks hanging off the one in back, under the bamboo grove. The sacks contain quantities of fleshy fruit that birds love to eat.

One of the most important parts of Agroforestry is pruning. Without pruning, we are just observing nature - this is definitely not bad, there are some parts of our farm where we do not prune at all. In permaculture this concept is referred to as Zone 5, or the place you go to study nature. In all other zones we use Human Intervention to 'improve the efficiency of the forest system'. In my eyes, the vast majority of that work is pruning to let in more light.

Bocconia Frutescens is really a (very) large bush, spreading itself out to take in as much light as possible. It is not able to compete with emergent species like bamboo or cecropia peltata (dead top with birds nests in the first image), but it is able to spread out and take up a whole lot of space. Above you can see how we prune the sides and leave the emergent leaders, letting more light in to the plants around.

Pruning produces this wood, the thickest trunks are hard enough to make fine fire wood, the thinner branches are being used around the property as we speak as markers for new plantings. The carbon contained by these prunings were harvested by Bocconia Frutescens-style solar panels that use nothing more than rain water and sunlight to vacuum up carbon from the surrounding atmosphere.

I have no data comparing this tree to other trees, but without a doubt comparing having this tree to not having it (clearing all native species to make space for coffee, for example) yields significant and spendable (stakes, firewood) carbon reserves in favor of having the tree.

Underneath where I pruned, we can see that I shook off a lot of the seeds and they are quick to sprout. Together with @ecoinstante we have been experimenting with transplanting these trees.

Local conservation groups have been reaching out to @ecoinstante about her important work on the Leptotila Conoveri - she now has vast observational evidence that ties this critically endangered and endemic (only here) species to this same tree - Bocconia Frutescens. The dove eats the seeds that fall to the ground, and gets its name as the 'Tolima Walking Dove' for that reason.

One of the permaculture principles that I love is 'Everybody Gardens'. Above, after minor weeding, @ecoinstant has discovered a planting from a walking dove, as it eats the fleshy seeds it also plants new trees around its feeding grounds. In this sense, it really is a weed in that it grows where you didn't plant it, although I respect that characteristic since I don't like the work of planting if I can avoid it.

But at the same time, in our world of damaged eco-systems, replanting key species in broken areas is an important way that humans can actually speed recovery of natural systems. Their roots are quite delicate, but if care is taken when they are small, we have managed to transplant them successfully.

Reused T-P tubes

There is a huge push right now locally (could it be Earth-wide?) to do something, a successful YES in a world protesting "NO". Our farm, under the leadership of @ecoinstante, is participating in a bird study group supported by a National Foundation called Selva. Participating farms build specially designed and positioned bird feeders, to invite birds into photogenic positions. With proper documentation of observational data, specialized scientific tourism can be invited in.

Together with the group leader, we propose to use @quintaesencia's #steem-powered sustainable development methodology to multiply the impact. Groups will participate in the generation of reports, to be published by @quintaesencia. The liquid portion of the payout of these reports will be used to purchase Bocconia Frutescens seedlings, which will be awarded to the participants. Documenting the planting of these trees and the follow-on effects may yield additional incentives.

In this way the documentation of the sustainable development project will be more open and available, more trees will be planted (and more carbon captured), as well as an additional benefit for our local, critically endangered bird.

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Win-Win-Win-Win - Its a multi-way win and I'd love any feedback either here on or Discord @ecoinstant#9078

Love and Light!