Caring for the Land and Serving Coffee – How obvious is that?
“Obviously the obvious isn’t obvious” is one of my favorite sayings because I am so frequently surprised by how many “obvious” things I miss and that is the case with my Earthwatch Expedition Fellowship.
Since I first heard of the Earthwatch opportunity, I wondered “now, why would someone donate money to the Forest Service to have four employees spend a day working on research projects in foreign countries?”
Did they think the Forest Service is too narrow minded and needs to get out and “see the world”?
The FS staff selected for the Earthwatch expedition were not upper management in the WO. We are all on the ground practitioners who are already getting to the field and digging the trenches. The three of us who went on the trip to Costa Rica already had international travel experience and were comfortable and excited about traveling to rural Central America.
Would you send a Baby Boomer Ranger to a foreign country?
Did the philanthropic donor think we were really going to learn practical research and field techniques?
The data we were collecting was really rather basic. The project was finding pre-selected transects, selecting representative individuals, measuring specific parameters in a consistent manner, recording the data for input into the database, and organizing the samples for transport and tracking. Basic field techniques that the FS uses for stream surveys, cultural resource surveys, biological surveys, timber inventory, and just about everyone in the Forest Service has either gathered or touched basic field data.
Maybe they expected the FS staff to contribute to the other participant’s understanding of environmental systems?
The project researchers Natalia and Sebastian had excellent command of the project parameters and were local. They had academic experience and personal experience with the coffee plantations, the community and the associated ecosystems. There was nothing we could really add or suggest to make things go better. The science, the field practices, and the logistics were flawless.
Sebastian (Center) measures coffee plantation organic matter with Earthwatch Expedition participants.
So, during our week of counting coffee berries and working our butts off, I asked my fellow Forest Service co-workers “Why do you think someone donated money for us to participate in an Earthwatch expedition?” Our philanthropic friend’s motive was not obvious, but we did learn a few things.
I learned that in any group, some people do a lot of work, and some people just show up for work. But despite various levels of effort, it is amazing how a group of complete strangers can come together, focus on a task and have a great time getting something done.
I miss hard fieldwork. Work where at the end of the day I stink, I’m filthy dirty and exhausted, but I know where I was, what I did, and why I did it.
But one of the more important items I learned comes connected to my forestry academics. I remember learning about the mass wasting landslides from washed-out timber clear-cuts, monoculture pine disasters and “scientific forestry.” As Foresters we were convinced that we knew how to grow a better tree. Forestry and agriculture now face the same land ethic issues, but I think that foresters were forced to learn their lessons starting about 50 to 100 years ago. Agriculture and consumers are just now facing the high cost of attempted eco-dominance.
What we learned in forestry is now being learned by farmers. It doesn’t pay to fight Mother Nature. Foresters and the Forest Service are learning how to work with the environment, not against the environment. A systems approach is needed and not everything can be cut, molded, planted and grown to perfection. Farmers will need to learn the same.
Organic and Fair Trade considerations are not sappy syrup soaked slogans served up to sell superficial shit at Starbucks. Best that I could tell, Starbucks is putting their money where the corporate mouth is: good farming and land stewardship; good relationships with the growing communities; and good products to the consumers. They decided there are valuable lessons to be learned from around the world. The support of the “Costa Rica Coffee from Community to Cup” expedition is their way of being connected to the environmental decisions each of us makes every day.
I am a true believer. “Caring for the Land and Serving People” is not my job. It is my calling. It is my place in the Universe. It is what I have been struggling with for the last 30 years and will likely carry it for the next thirty.
But, I have been focused on forests, the Forest Service, and the impacts to natural resources of our country’s wild spaces. I understand our Wilderness and wild land issues, but the issues are not just about our open spaces – parks, forests and public lands.
Butterfly on coffee plant.
The natural resource issues sparked by Ansel Adams, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Gifford Pinshot, and our mentors of the environmental movement are just are relevant as ever. But instead of open, wild and natural places, we need to be examining a regular, familiar, otherwise ordinary segment of our lives – being a consumer. Spending money is an environmental decision. Living in a community, any community is an environmental decision. Walking to the Starbucks with my husband, buying a cup of coffee, sitting and reading a newspaper and walking home is an environmental decision. It is a very hard, complex, and overwhelming decision and we are making it whether we like it or not. I am almost uncomfortable with how much our every action is tied to our planet’s resources. I buy a cup of coffee and my four bucks is directly connected to people across the world trying to feed their children.
Tarrazu Cooperative Coffee Farmer with Natalia, Earthwatch Researcher
What I have thought of as a career is no longer a decision made in the office Monday to Friday. It is a powerful decision made every minute of my life. A decision made every minute of every person living on this planet.
And I am reminded that “with great power comes great responsibility.”
It isn’t clear to me how I’m going to apply my Earthwatch experience to my Forest Service projects. But then again, some of the most obvious lessons aren’t always obvious.
I have more of my Earthwatch photographs posted on my photography website www.cynthiawhelan.com and choose the tab labeled “Tarrazu Textures.”
P.S. We drank the most amazing coffees. All were smooth, full of flavor and pure life !
If you want the best quality coffee, direct from the growers you must try Tarrazu Cooperative Coffee.
