Please tell us about the week.
JK: FTPF operates globally and is based in Pittsburgh,
PA where FTPF TreeEO and Co-creator Cem Akin
lives. Twelve of us went to these five communities
in Peru. Our volunteers ranged in age from 11 to 75;
the core group was affiliated with Tree Pittsburgh.
We flew into the Peruvian city of Iquitos, which is
the largest city in the world unreachable by road;
you can only fly there or take a boat. From Iquitos,
we took a boat two hours upriver to communities
along the Napo River, a tributary of the Amazon River.
Along the way, we saw the forested edges—forests
that are regrowth after clear-cutting, where the
trees are, at best, 40 to 50 years old—and then the
cattle clear-cut areas. We saw erosion everywhere.
We were in Peru for a week; the middle five days
is when we distributed and planted 1200 trees a
day. We were on the move, always by boat. The
communities knew we were coming and they were
super prepared for us. We had a program with
the kids in schools when we first arrived so while
that was happening, I was out scouting places to
plant. I found myself asking the same questions in
each community like, "Does livestock walk through
here?" and "Is this area next to the school where
the kids play soccer?" It was rapid site assessment
to avoid high-use areas and otherwise site the trees
in the most appropriate place. I'd have 30 minutes
in each place to sort out what was going where. >
32 CityTREES
Six thousand fruit trees were transported to communities by boat on The Amazon Queen.
