SchoolsEstela RomeroDecember 17, 2020

"Las Trojes" village

SchoolsEstela RomeroDecember 17, 2020

THE VISIT

Now the Symbolic Migration has packed and hurried heading south to attend the elementary school children living in the tiny village of “Las Trojes” and attending classes at their elementary school located right way up to “El Rosario” Sanctuary, only 20 minutes from reaching this Sanctuary itself. The parents’ committee of the school, represented by a few mothers in the location, accompanied. This is one of the villages at the bottom valley of this Sanctuary which still live from forest resources since historic times; on the other side, as an alternative for making a living, it is in villages like this located at the very border lines to the valley portions before starting the driving up at the mountains themselves towards the Monarch colonies, where planting avocado orchards present certain progress --not coming higher uphill since altitude means colder climate--, but always heading to the southern lands, including, we shall mention, the “Cerro Pelón” Sanctuary surrounding regions, all of them at an average of one thousand meters lower in elevation and much warmer in climate. All areas located northwards, including hillsides and small meadows among them, keep still being rather cold for avocado planting fortunately, so, we can say that two of the Monarch overwintering Sanctuaries, that is, “Sierra Chincua” and “El Rosario”, both at over ten thousand feet elevation, shall be too cold and keep rather far from the real and main avocado planting activity going on down there at the flat bottom valley dimensions to the south. All in all, it is however evident that two main factors have encouraged avocado planting activities: on the one side, the evident global climate change that has drastically reached Monarchs’ winter homes at their high mountains to much warmer, and on the other side, the local consumption altogether with the high demand of exportation of this delicious and highly nutritious vegetable has become much more profitable for many local families than the historical corn crops. It is, last of all, very concerning the way avocado orchards demand high amounts of water for their maintenance and pesticides against plagues. “We worry about our centenary water storages up in our mountains; it is our forest trees the ones that guarantee our future. Avocado orchards are not historically belonging to higher regions like ours. We could as well do reforestation for commerce and even though it takes a few years to see a benefit, we could manage a better future planting forest trees for timber commerce, which could be better appreciated and valued ; We know we are too shy as mothers and women to be here attending this lesson with our children, but on behalf of our mothers in the village, we want to thank the Symbolic Migration for bringing this reinforcement in our children’s education for the last years, which we so much miss, since at school, teachers cannot give all the time to these themes; the book gifts are so beautiful! The books on trees are giving responses to so many questions and facts we are living nowadays! A treasure for the little library at their school… thank you always for this!” --these mothers in the village representing the “Elementary School’s Parents Committee”, President, Treasure issues and Secretary, expressed as depositaries for the books while the school opens back next year--. Bringing our lesson on “The Benefits of Forest Trees” all over these villages around the three Monarch Sanctuaries, aims to awakening sensibility to the importance of the conservation of our legendary forests due to the high pressure we could be putting on them. See at the images the average dimensions avocado orchards commonly eat up from local prairies, little lower forest areas and canopy areas.