Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Brazil nut tree vs. powerline

I cringe when I see the destruction caused by the construction of the power line along the dirt road going into Bosque Santa Lucia and beyond. The Bosque really got hit hard because my aim has always been to keep the area in trees, including the roadsides. I knew I was taking a chance of losing old and newly planted trees along the road because of public domain, which is 15 meters on each side of the road. After more than 20 years of using a one-lane dirt road, it was hard to believe that the road could become wider and a power line be constructed. The power line is in its final stage of being built. Light cutting of brush was done, followed by chainsawing of larger trees, then the placement of the concrete poles and the high tension cables and the transformers. On the way into the Bosque everyday I see one large Brazil nut (Bertholetia excelsa) defying progress. As you can see in the image, it's a very large tree towering over the electric poles and power lines. As reported in previous blogs, it's prohibited to cut Brazil nut trees without specific permission from the federal government. Mechanized agriculture has seen fit to destroy them in a big way, but that's another story. The power company would never cut one of these trees without permission from IBAMA. Now the question is, has the company requested permission? I suspect that there are other Brazil nut trees in the same situation further down the line from the Bosque. It'll be interesting to see if the trees get cut.

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