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During her OSARA internship in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve in 2007, Clare Brown worked long and hard to check and fix the Omora Park’s 8 year database of bird banding information, accumulated since 2000 by numerous field technicians and volunteers. She then helped put those data into a manuscript on the autecology and natural history of one of the subantarctic forest’s few long-distance migratory bird species: the fío-fío (Elaenia albiceps). Clare will now use the experience gained with OSARA to conduct a masters in environmental science at Evergreen State Univeristy.

To view the resulting paper, please visit the website of the Anales del Instituto de la Patagonia.

OSARA is proud to report that the alumni of its first pilot study abroad program with the University of Georgia in 2005 have used there experience in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve to aspire to new heights. Of the four UGA undergraduate students who conducted their honors theses under the direction of OSARA President Dr. Christopher Anderson, besides winning various awards and scholarships for their theses, all are now in prestigious postgraduate programs, including: Brett Maley (M.S. Warnell School of Forest Resources - UGA), Amy Trice (M.S. Odum School of Ecology - UGA), Clayton Griffith (M.S. Urban and Regional Planning - Georgia Institute of Technology) and William Collier (M.S. Social Ecology of Conservation and Development - Yale University). Congratulations “lab pups”!

Emily Vail, an undergraduate student at Vassar College, will receive a Summer Travel Fellowship from the Vassar Environmental Research Institute to attend the OSARA field course Biocultural Conservation in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve in December 2008. The $5,000 grant, co-written with OSARA, will permit Ms. Vail to participate in this 2 week, intensive program being developed together with the University of North Texas’ Chile Program Office. For more information check out the course page.

University of North Texas President Dr. Gretchen Bataille recently released her 2007 Annual Report, highlighting the significance of the Cape Horn Consortium.

Senda Darwin, Omora’s sister NGO in Chiloé, recently received an “Explora” grant from the Chilean national science commission (CONICYT) to conduct an education program entitled: “Our green roots - discovering and valuing native flora and their traditional uses.” This 10 month program will include working directly with schools in several parts of Chile to learn about and communicate a broad range of experiences about native flora, including their medicinal, artistic, cultural, food and other uses. The knowledge acquired by students and instructors also will be published in a subsquent book on ethno-botany. Omora is proud to support this initiative, lending our partners in Chiloé the years of experience gained in Cape Horn linking the natural and cultural worlds that surround us.

Since 2004, UMAG masters student Ximena Arango has worked in Puerto Williams to define and implement a “charismatic flagship” species that would promote conservation of old-growth forests in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve. Arango, a native of Columbia, early on identified the Magellanic woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus) as a keystone species that was also very beloved and recognized by diverse social sectors of the local community.

Arango used her scholarship from the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity (2004-2007) to position this species as a symbol that motivates the local community to participate in conservation in the subantarctic archipelago. To date, her work has inspired a host of woodpecker-oriented activities, including: a municipal-sponsored drawing contest for school children, various art expositions, postcards, calendars, cloth bags, and presentations, among others. To consolidate this initiative and project it “from the South”, in June 2008 the Omora Park will offer a training course, led by Ximena, to teach this methodology to other conservation initiatives in the region and throughout Chile.

To learn more about how the Omora Park is working to implement charismatic flagship species for conservation see the recently published article in Magallania entitled: “Discovery and implementation of the Magellanic woodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus) as a charismatic flagship species for the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve.” Download the pdf by clicking here (in Spanish with English abstract).

By Melissa Crowe

Eighteen students ventured to what they called the “end of the world” during the winter semester, joining theories of biology and philosophy to study conservation in Punta Arenas and Puerto Williams, Chile. “It’s kind of an odd trip to pick for just one credit,” Denton senior Kasi Petr said. “It’s a lot of being outside.” When people think of studying abroad, Patagonia does not usually come to mind, she said.

Kelli Moses, a Denton junior and Omora Sub-Antarctic Research Alliance and UNT Chile Program Assistant agrees… (continue reading the entire article).

The American Birding Association program Birder’s Exchange (BeX) approved an application submitted by OSARA for UMAG master’s student Cristóbal Pizarro to obtain birding equipment to conduct his thesis on the sea birds of the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve and their possible role as vectors that link marine and terrestrial ecosystems. The donation also proved useful in January as part of this year’s Tracing Darwin’s Path course for students involved in the elaboration of a new ethno-ecology book for which they had to obtain new photos and sound recordings of island birds.

A multi-national group of scientists, lead by Spanish lichenologist Dr. Leopoldo Sancho from the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain, returned to the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (CHBR) for a second major expedition in January. The trip continued work begun in 2005. This year the multidisciplinary team included taxonomists, geomorphologists, botanists, philosphers, UMAG masters students and UNT undergrads. The scientists and students navigated through the Northwest Arm of the Beagle Channel, studying principally the lichen flora found along recently receeded glacial valleys.

The taxanomic and ecological study will be linked to work done by Dr. Sancho and his colleagues in Antarctica and included the installation of a climate station in the Omora Park. Future work will continue to explore the effect of climate change and Antarctic-Subantarctic connections by using lichens. In addition, the team is helping Dr. Ricardo Rozzi, UMAG master’s student Yanet Medina and UNT undergrad Kelli Moses develop content for the narrative of the new “Garden of the Cape Horn Miniature Forest,” a trail being implemented in the Omora Park to bring this hidden aspect of biodiversity to tourists’ attention.

During February, University of Washington Ph.D. Student Gus Jespersen will be implementing a novel study in the Omora Park, one that is being replicated as well in the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest (USA). Gus’ work is of particular interest to the researchers of the CHBR as he is looking at the role of lichens in influencing the development of vascular plants in high-Andean sites, above treeline.

This is not the first U.W. research being conducted in the CHBR. For the past 3 years, the Omora Park has also received students Aaron Clark and Liz Addis, working with Dr. Rodrigo Vasquez on the ecophysiology of the rufous-collared sparrow (Zonotrichia capensis).

During March 2008, the Peace Boat will be passing through the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve (CHBR). Organizers have asked to learn about the research, education and conservation activities carried out at the Omora Park and in the CHBR. So, while in port at Punta Arenas on the 15th, passengers will meet the researchers and students working at the University of Magallanes, hear a talk from OSARA President Dr. Christopher Anderson, and visit the urban wetland “Humedal 3 Puentes,” whose conservation is being promoted by local authorities and citizens alike.

The Peace Boat’s mission to “build a culture of peace around the world” takes it to ports-of-call from Vietnam to Oman and Antarctica to Alaska. At each location, organizers link visitors with non-profit organizations working on key issues of poverty, the environment and human rights.

OSARA and the University of North Texas’s Chile Program Office have formalized their collaborative efforts in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve this semester by jointly hiring Kelli Moses as a Project Assistant who will help coordinate the courses, events and programs being carried out in southern Chile.

Kelli is currently finishing her B.S. in Biology at the UNT, and she first came to Puerto Williams as a student in the first ever Tracing Darwin’s Path course in 2006. Since then, she has been an active participant in the implementation of the Chile Program Office at UNT. She is also conducting her thesis on the relationship of aquatic mosses and macroinvertebres in the CHBR, just coming back recently from a boat-based expedition to the Northwest Arm of the Beagle Channel.

We welcome Kelli, who brings to this initiative her own personal enthusiasm and dedication, as well as formally helping to consolidate the collaboration that UNT and OSARA have been developing since 2006.

From 30 May to 15 June, 2008, OSARA will lead a new Tracing Darwin’s Path course to the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve. The course, entitled “Field Course in Sub-Antarctic Conservation: Integrating the Human Dimension to Biocultural Conservation at the Southern End of the Americas,” will provide students with an interdisciplinary research, conservation and education experience at one of the most pristine wilderness areas remaining in the world and will focus on the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MaB) Program’s approach to conservation – linking people and development with biodiversity and ecosystems. In addition, the 10 students from the U.S. will also interact with a parallel master’s course from the University of Magallanes (UMAG). Finally, the program will conclude with a 4 day international workshop inaugurating the Omora Park as a long-term socio-ecological reserach site (LTSER) with national and international academics and authorities.

Lead professors Dr. Christopher Anderson and Dr. Ricardo Rozzi will place emphasis on the following specific topics:

Global change – a holistic approach to social-biological change
- Exotic and invasive species
- Climate change and the ozone hole
- Endangered cultural diversity

LTERs – moving beyond just monitoring and achieving social integration
- Terrestrial-marine linkages
- “Hidden” biodiversity - bryophytes and aquatic macroinvertebrates
- Opportunities for ecosystem restoration and decision making

For more information, email the OSARA-UNT Chile Program Assistant Kelli Moses (kelli.moses@gmail.com).

In January, José Tomás Ibarra (Omora Project Coordinator) and Ximena Arango (UMAG Local Coordinator and IEB Outreach Assistant) launched the new book entitled Habitats and Inhabitants of the Robalo Watershed with a public presentation in the town library. The book was published in association with Omora, UMAG, the Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity and Fauna Australis and financed by the project “Views from today and yesterday of the Robalo Watershed” with the support of the Chilean National Environment Commission.

The project explores the different “tracks” left behind by the different cultures that have inhabited the watershed that houses the Omora Park and provides drinking water to Puerto Williams. Going from the Yaghans and the first English missionary colonists up to the present day, the book links both cultural and biological diversity and is the final product of a parallel course that was taught in the local elementary school by Ximena and Omora volunteer Melisa Gañan.

For more information visit: www.umag.cl/williams