Utilizing Microcatchment Systems to Increase Tree Establishment Rates in the Bolivian High Plains

Date:_____________________________________ iii PREFACE In 1998 I graduated from the University of California, Davis with a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology. During my last year at Davis, I decided that I wanted to spend some time working and living abroad in a completely different culture from the one I had grown up in. The Peace Corps Masters International Program offered at Michigan Technological University seemed to fit perfectly with my desire to have a unique cultural experience while continuing to further my education and career goals. Following a year of forestry related classes at Michigan Tech, I was assigned to serve in the Peace Corps Natural Resource Project as a forestry and soil conservation Volunteer in the country of Bolivia. In my two years in the Peace Corps, I spent my time bouncing between two separate jobs. The site to which I was assigned to work at was a small university research station located in the high plains of Bolivia. As a Volunteer at this station I worked on a variety of different projects from soil conservation extension work with local Aymara farmers to teaching nursery management courses at the university. In the second year of my service, my counterpart Jesús Cárdenas and I implemented a UN funded project to construct 10 rainwater catchment ponds benefiting 40 farm families in a community near our station. While at this station, I experimented with a number of different water harvesting techniques to increase crop production. After repeated failures in establishing trees in our area, I decided to initiate a study whereby water-harvesting techniques were adopted to individual trees so as to increase their survival through the harsh high plains winters. In my other capacity within the Peace Corps, I worked as the Roving Technical Assistant to the Associate Director of the Natural Resource Project in Bolivia. In this job I traveled throughout the country visiting other Volunteers within our project in order to assist them with project design and development. I also played an active role in organizing training activities for new Volunteers, helping with site development, and putting together various national workshops on the environment. While in my service, I was selected to participate on the Project Advisory Committee of Peace Corps Bolivia and helped reorganize and write the Natural Resource Project plan for the next five-year cycle.