Field Ecology, Conservation, and Restoration of Patagonian Mountain Ecosystems
During winter-session 2018, 11 University of Montana students loaded up their backpacks and headed south to Patagonia, Chile to learn about ecology, restoration, and sustainable development in one of the most remote and stunning regions on the planet.Â
The 21-day course included a 6-day service-learning research project in collaboration with CONAF (the Chilean Forest Service) followed by a backcountry trek through three river valleys that together have been a major focus of conservation. Just one week after the students completed their traverse, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed a decree officially designating these valleys as Patagonia National Park.Â
Highlights of the trip included discovering a rare fern outside of its known range, collecting data to create a reference model for lenga forest restoration, making detailed observation of the changes in morphology and phenology of plants, hiking to a glacier, learning to make empanadas, drinking mate, and sleeping in an historic refugio used in the past by sheep ranchers who frequented our route. According to folklore, if you eat calafate berries in Patagonia, you are bound to return. Those berries were tasty!
The Chacabuco Valley, Patagonia Park. Photo by James Q. Martin