Three weeks ago, the El Socorro Center for Wildlife Conservation called and asked us if i knew of anywhere they could move to as they were having problems with their landlord. It so happened that a house on our site , that we normally use to house interns was empty, and we didnt have any new interns lined up. 2 weeks ago the centre began moving here to Wa Samaki Ecosystems (www.wasamakipermaculture.org) and after a trying 2 weeks they have finally moved all their animals here and begun reoganizing their tanks and cages.

Their move had opened an interesting challenge for our permaculture system as we are now attempting to learn what we have in our zones that will feed a diverse cross section of monkeys, snakes, ocelots, iguanas, turtules, macaws, toucans and a whole lot more. Our zones 4 and 5 have taken on a new meaning as we are now harvesing many of the fruits that we had originally planted for wildlife but were never sure if they were being utilized as most of the wildlife surrounding our farm has disappeared due to overhunting and habitat loss

So its only been a few days since the center moved and its been interesting trying to site cages to place them close to food sources while trying to design ways to utilize the animals waste with the minimum amount of work. Strategic compost piles and banana circles, new fruit trees to be planted, cages staked so that waste food from one cage falls into another where it can be used...its a whole new dimention we are playing with. Most of the animals will eventually be released once rehabilitated but some will stay with us forever because of injuries that have left them unable to survive in the wild. A rainbow boa that the center released a few months ago in our zone 5 showed up trying to get into the mouse colonies as it smelt food it had grown used to before it was released.

Volunteers are beginning to show up that will also learn about permaculture. We are setting up a demonstration area to educate the public about wildlife that is rapidly disappearing and showing how we can design systems that support all our human needs while still allowing wildlife to exist....come visit and volunteer if you are ever in Trinidad.