A very active student group in Picota, an hour's drive from Tarapoto, when the roads are dry, has named themselves the "Chullachaqui," for a spirit that lives in the forest. This group named the preserve "El Quinillal" for the giant and valuable Qunillla trees on which the staghorn fern lives.
The preserve is in the jurist diction of two cities, Picota and Bellavista.
In August of 2001 I returned to Peru. I visited far more of El Quinillal than ever before, and found that timber industry is very strong. The contracts they have are secret and vague in how they can be inforced. After I returned home I learned that the Peru government had declaired some forests, ?Areas of perminant production.? Local efforts and letter writing from both Peru and other countries kept El Quinillal from becoming such an area. This accomplishment raised the status of El Quinillal to the level of a peserve in the District, (or State) of San Martin.
An engineer, Esley Huatangare, made botanical collections there to continue with the botanical inventory of the area. El Quinillal has also been studied by students from University of San Martin and of the Agrarian University of Sweeden.
Marco Leon and the Chullachaqui are still doing the ground work for the preserve. They are now are coordinating with Lily Rodriguez, president of CIMA, the non-government organization in charge of the magnificant Cordillera Azul National Park. They are working towards having Robin Foster, a botanist from the Field Museum-Chicago, come to El Qunillal for studying its flora.
Any such effort requires money. I have left what I could afford in a very safe account at the University of San Martin. If you feel you can help this effort in any way, please contact me.
In the spring of 2003 some of the founders of the Chullachaqui graduated. Four of them did their thesis together on the preserve. Their social-echonomic study of the area was bound into a book which I have. They also made a PowerPoint presentation, in Spanish, which they sent to me.
They have traveled over much of the state of San Martin, because they are an EXAMPLE of what a student environmental group SHOULD be. They are in my heart constantly. I pray for their success and safty.
Please contact me for more information.
Roy Vail
200 Ridge
Mena, Arkansas 71953
Author of
"Platycerium Hobbyist's Handbook"
