out to Suojia Town. The town lies- like many of the villages- 6 hours
to the west of us and on the edge of one of the Nature Reserve buffer
zones. We stayed at a new ecological research station in the town run
by the Nature Reserve. I can't explain how excited I was when we
arrived at the station. It was a wonderful feeling- like the first time
I set foot at the Coweeta Hydrological Research Center on the Little
Tennessee River. There, long term ecological research had been going on
for decades and I was privileged as a mere teenager to be joining some
of the world's best stream ecologists in their research (thanks Dr
Benfield!). Here in Suojia- we were sitting on top of the water tower
of Asia- the headwaters of rivers affecting the lives of 40% of the
world's population. This time I wasn't joining in decades of long term
research, I was helping train monitors and managers and set up the very
beginnings of wildlife monitoring and conservation in the second
largest nature reserve in the world! It was awesome! I can't believe
how lucky I was to work at Coweeta- now this just blows me away. The
research station is well equipped with bunk rooms, meeting rooms, solar
power, a weather station and a computer- but there's little real
expertise in management or scientific undertakings. We've now signed a
3 year agreement to work with the reserve management, staff, wildlife
monitors, and community to train them in monitoring and conservation
and help run research and conservation programs.
After a comfortable night in the new accommodations and unseasonably
mild temperatures- we set out to the wetland area to survey migratory
birds. We covered roughly 120 square kilometers in a small valley
packed with wildlife. There were hundreds of migratory birds, wild ass,
and gazelle as well as foxes, wolves, etc. Besides the wetlands, there
were salt flats, rolling hills, near-desert sections, and rivers.
Towards the end of the survey, we came upon a warm mineral spring that
fed a small stream. As it broadened out over a hundred yards wide, it
left a sheet of mineral deposit that looked like soft sand but was
solid as rock. It was beautiful and I really wanted to sit and soak in
the bubbling water- but we moved on to set the coordinates for an
observation point. We set the point at a series of pools where we saw
over 300 bar headed geese and four black necked crane.
Before heading back to the station, we had a picnic supper of boiled
yak ribs, canned fish, canned stewed pork fat, and spam supplemented
with a bag of dry bread. The others drove back while Marc and I walked
an 8 kilometer run of river that flows from the wetland area through
the mountains to the town with the research station. It was beautiful
and rewarding. We recorded over 300 blue sheep, a common kingfisher
(supposed to live at elevations up to 1500 meters- we were at 4500),
loads of birds of prey, a Pallas's cat fighting a Tibetan fox, and a
kid picking his way along the river bank and wading across to us who
looked just like Huck Finn! We got back to town right at dark and
dropped in at the village school to meet a teacher there who is
beginning the first environmental education programs and will be acting
as liaison between the nature reserve and the community.
The next morning, we walked around town and took pictures to compare
for future reference as the town grows. There is still a fort wall and
crumbling tower with gun slits from the 1970's when this was very much
a cowboys and Indians frontier. Not even 40 years ago...
We then met with the Nature Reserve to discuss plans for an upcoming
meeting when we will formalize our relationship and work plans for the
coming years. Then a quick lunch of boiled yak ribs, heart, and stuffed
intestines, loads of milk tea and some soda bread and we were off!
We arrived back in Zhiduo late last night (Sunday). Today, we wrote a
formal document for the bureau that oversees the Nature Reserve, worked
on a journal article, met with a doctor from a nearby village who is
requesting assistance, and a bunch of other stuff. But the best part,
of course, was my visit to the shower house. I bought a 50 cent
scrubber to help with the cleansing. It had a picture of a smiling lady
on it and was next to the shampoo- but the thing must be made for paint
removal! It definitely did the job, taking off the first three layers
of my skin along with the dirt. Anyway, it's been a good few days and
there's lots of work, which is good.
A quick note on the doctor training that Marion is conducting- the
doctors (one of them having practiced over 20 years) said that they'd
learned more in one day with her than in their entire careers! It's
hard to imagine how bad the health care here is.
