Learning to think like a watershed

Admit it. Rumors can be a great source of local information.

As soon as the fancy hotel in Papagayo was closed for soiling its own nest, the Gold Coast Grapevine served up a tasty and hilarious morsel last week. It seems that the recent closure was temporary. They are now offering "special packages" at reduced prices-to clients with chronic constipation.

Within a week I heard another good one. A friend overheard a water agency official remark that MINAE was suspending the processing of any well drilling applications. This turned out to be true. Needless to say the news put a lump in the throat of any number of gung-ho developers.

Sometimes you have to wonder just what it takes for people to wake up. High rises sprout in areas with water rationing and no sewage treatment. At the current rate, the well drillers are going to have the aquifers looking like a corpse with an overdose of acupuncture. Our regional electrical cooperative is expanding its coverage at some 20% per year. Blue Flag beaches are having their ratings lowered faster than CDO's in the financial world. And don't even let me get started on all the damage to the rivers and streams of our seasonally parched paradise.

Blame is an easy route to follow. Blame it on the developers. Blame it on corrupt and inefficient agencies. Blame it on stupidity. Blame it on greed. In the bigger picture we are faced with an all-pervasive combination of a short-term focus and lack of "whole system" thinking.

Developers in Guanacaste are playing ball in a world financial system that has increasingly thrown off the regulatory shackles and focused on short-term gain. Take a look at the events unfolding in world capital markets and you get a nice glimpse of where things can head when this mentality rules the day.

The quick buck is no stranger to Guanacaste. The cattle boom which led to massive deforestation here was an effort to cash in on import restrictions placed on much larger producers in South America due to outbreaks of some nasty diseases. Costa Rica moved in and exploited this window of opportunity at the cost of hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest. When the big producers down south cleaned up their act, the price of beef plummeted and cattle raising in Guanacaste was no longer profitable. Local ecosystems and the regional climate are still paying the price.

Just like the current disease of development and the sub-prime mess in the US, the cattle boom was a classic case of passing the buck to the future. Somebody else--involved in neither the decisions nor sharing the profits--inherits all the negative consequences. There has to be a better way, a different approach that leaves a greener future for the residents of Guanacaste.

A friend-who is much more a ‘big picture' guy than I--recently encouraged me to "think like a watershed." He knew that I was working through a lifetime obsession with the processes and consequences of erosion in a little project in the valley near my home. He had seen all the techniques to minimize damage to quebradas, keep sediment out of the river and the strategic plantings to stop landslides from occurring.

He had even dragged a world expert in biological waste water treatment out of his tropical vacation to do some free consulting on a way to get 6 of the future homes linked up to a green filter that irrigates a fruit orchard. But that wasn't enough.

"Tom, you do this stuff in your sleep, it is like the default mode on a computer, but you're stuck in a limited application. You need a program with more juice. Let's see how we can expand the work in your little valley to try to keep our whole valley from turning into another Tamarindo."

More work, I groaned internally. Worse, he had a plan. Worse yet, a three pronged plan of attack, not just to keep things as they are, but also to engage all the players in the bigger game of restoring our valley.

First we dig out all the maps and studies that have been done by various agencies over time, fill in some of the blanks, update some data and come up with an ecosystem management plan-plan de manejo in Spanish-and involve the communities in our valley so that they can see the benefits and tradeoffs. Concurrently we mount an effort to delimit the protected zones, such as the mangrove estuary and the river edges, which already enjoy protected status under the law.

Next step, try to bring back what was there to begin with. Reforestation, especially in the upland recharge zones, restores the role of the hilltops and steep slopes as the first line of defense in the stronger downpours that are predicted as a result of global warming.

Developments can play a positive role in this effort. One developer in our valley recently asked me to draw up a list of native trees shrubs and groundcovers to write into the landscaping part of the CC&R's for his project. Another is asking for a certified forestry consultant to map out the reforestation of a large tract with emphasis on improving hydrology, wildlife habitat and carbon sequestration.

Let me risk a bit of redundancy. Developments that anticipate the future are better prepared for the future. Roads are a no-brainer. If your roads don't wash out in the more intense rain events you're better off. The same holds true for the length and slopes of your road system. Given the uncertainty about the not-so-distant outlook for global petroleum supplies and prices, less is more in the long term. Access in developments should be based on the "least path" approach. More clustering and less of the sprawling sub-urban jungle tract approach will cut future road maintenance costs and provide project residents with the benefit of foresight as gas prices soar into the unknown stratosphere of the future.

If we employ a bit of "whole system" thinking, the concern over future energy supplies soon spills over into a couple of other problem areas for local developments. A number of the solutions currently in vogue for septic treatment depend on recirculation or oxygenation provided by pumps that are powered by electricity. Let's leave it at this: what happens when the lights go out? How long before the proverbial cup runneth over? Ditto for the obligate air-conditioned house and condo designs. Doesn't it make more sense to build for the future and market around the concept "look how smart we are?"

As it turns out, "thinking like a watershed" makes sense. Water arrives at the top of the hill for free. We need to do everything possible to keep it there and soak it in. That will make the trees grow faster and both the shade and the leaf transpiration cool down the heat of the day. Integration of landscape and house design using an ecological perspective and you get cooling currents moving through your home with no more investment than a change in paradigm.

Watershed processes also provide one of the filtration models that makes the most sense in Guanacaste-pocket wetlands with a range of specially adapted plants to clean up the yucky stuff before it gets down to the groundwater and comes out in the wells or oozes out at the beaches. 

Costa Rica has spent a long time both envying and imitating the trends and lifestyles of the US. Given the growing concerns over water issues at the national level, it would be a great moment to analyze the sweeping regulatory changes which have recently been put into force in the US. Developers are being forced to "think like a watershed" out of a concern both for ground water supplies and contaminant discharge into streams and rivers.

It's a crying shame that the Papagayo polluters didn't get to participate in a recent documentary film made by a friend of mine. She had a dozen people volunteer to sit on a toilet and respond to one question: What is a watershed and how does it work?

In a more perfect world, if you can't answer the question, you don't get to be a developer, because, as someone said, not long ago, "In the hydrological cycle, ultimately, we all live downstream."

Tom Peifer is an ecological land use consultant with 12 years experience in Guanacaste. Phone: 658-8018.  peifer@racsa.co.cr

El Centro Verde is dedicated to sustainable land use, agriculture and development

Web site: http://www.elcentroverde.org/