Former Lincolnite creates home, way of life in Amazon

 1 comment(s)  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

BY ALGIS J. LAUKAITIS / Lincoln Journal Star

Seven years ago, Tom Larson decided to try to help save a  rainforest.

He could have joined an organization, contributed money or  started a campaign to raise public awareness about the deforestation of the Amazon Basin.

Instead, Larson bought about 200 acres of rainforest near the headwaters of the Amazon River in Ecuador.

[+]Enlarge

Tom Larson, a former Lincoln resident, now makes his home in Ecuador. He operates an ecotourism business out of the Arajuno Jungle Lodge. (Courtesy Photo)

Tom Larson, a former Lincoln resident, now makes his home in Ecuador. He operates an ecotourism business out of the Arajuno Jungle Lodge. (Courtesy Photo)

“I’ve always been an environmentalist and activist, but I asked myself: What is the most physical concrete thing I can do?” Larson said in an interview during a visit to Lincoln, his hometown.

He decided to buy a piece of rainforest and protect it.

Today he calls the 200 acres on the banks of the Arajuno River home. He lives off the land, gets his energy from such renewable  resources as the sun, and makes his living by operating an ecotourism business headquartered at the Arajuno Jungle Lodge.

Guests stay in spacious cabins built from native hardwoods, eat home-cooked meals, including native dishes, and spend their days exploring an adjacent 7,000-acre jungle reserve. Hiking and canoeing are available, along with bird watching and a visit to Amazoonico, a nearby wildlife rescue center.

For the more adventurous, Larson offers whitewater rafting on the  Jutuyacu River, which means “big water” in Quichua, the language spoken by the local indigenous tribe.

 A local shaman often stops by and conducts group and individual healing ceremonies, Larson said.

But there’s another side to Arajuno Lodge. Volunteers can learn about protecting the rainforest and its natural and cultural resources. And depending on their skills and fluency in Spanish, they may get a chance to work with the Quichua Indians.

Larson said the Quichuas desperately need help. Sixty percent of them suffer from malnutrition, and 90 percent live at or below the country’s poverty level.

“They have a lot of health issues,” he added, noting that much of it stems from a lack of protein in their diet.

Larson, 54, has been helping the Quichuas since he left his job as a training director for the Peace Corps. It was that organization that first took him to Ecuador as a volunteer in 1988.

He spent his first year conducting an inventory of cloud forests, then went to the Galapagos Islands, where he worked with farmers to eradicate invasive species.

After his two years in the Peace Corps were up, Larson returned to the United States and earned a master’s degree in natural resource management for the University of Idaho. He then was offered a job as chief of environmental education and interpretation for the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands. He’s been in Ecuador since.

Larson was in Lincoln recently to visit his 78-year-old mother, Norma, and her husband, Howard. He makes the trip every year and stays for about two weeks, visiting family and friends.

Bill Bryant, a high school classmate and co-publisher of the Hickman Voice News, said he knew early that Larson would some day end up in a remote place like the Amazon.

“Only because he always had a passion for the outdoors and that’s where his path led him.”

A 1971 graduate of Lincoln Southeast High School, Larson attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for a year before moving to Oregon. His resume includes 15 years of experience in the U.S. Forest Service.

Larson said he is happy to visit Lincoln but could never live in a city again. His roots are firmly planted in the jungles of Ecuador, where he is helping the Quichuas raise fish and become ecotourism guides.

The fish farming project came about after Larson saw the Quichuas fishing with dynamite, a dangerous practice for both fishermen and fish — many of the tribesmen are missing fingers and arms, he said. The explosions also hurt the fish population and other aquatic species.

Larson came up with an alternative: fish ponds. Instead of blowing up fish with dynamite, he suggested the tribe raise fish in ponds. He applied for and got an $8,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development to build 10 fish ponds in four communities.

Each grows enough fish to feed a family with some left over to sell, Larson said. They raise cachama, a species related to the piranha. Although tiny as fingerlings, cachamas weigh one pound in six months and can grow up to 80 pounds.

Larson said the fish doesn’t cost that much to raise, is a source of protein and is a native species, which is good in case the ponds overflow from floods and the fish escape into the river.

“It’s working,” he said of the fish-pond project. “Fish dynamiting has gone dramatically down in front of my place, but you can still hear it downstream.”

In addition to working with fish, Larson and his staff are working to conserve aquatic turtles, caimans, snails, capybara  (world’s largest rodent) and aguties, another large rainforest rodent.

He recently got another $8,000 grant from the Agency for International Development to sponsor a 200-hour course to train Quichuas to become licensed ecotourism guides. Twenty natives signed up.

“The natives have a wealth of knowledge, but they don’t know how to interact with tourists,” said Larson, whose lodge gets about 150 visitors a year.

He keeps in touch with the outside world via the Internet, paddling in his dugout about an hour each way twice a week to use a computer in the town of Tena, about an hour away.

“The only way we can get to my place is by boat or walk in.”

Reach Algis J. Laukaitis at 473-7243 or alaukaitis@journalstar.com.