San Juan, Puerto Rico

April 9, 2007

Week 4

Redefining Our Project

Things have been happening so quickly here that it’s difficult to keep up at times. Our project has reshaped itself immensely, just as a large blob of clay is reshaped into a beautiful sculpture by a master craftsman. Sarah and I were worried at times that the largest issue surrounding an off-campus IQP (the definition of the project) would never be resolved, and that we would be forced to define the project ourselves for our sponsor. Fortunately, in the past two weeks some key things have changed, and I’ll attempt to summarize them here.

Our original focus for the project was on invasive species and their impacts on the environments they invade. This changed during our preparatory class last term to exotic pets, which was the primary area of concern for the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. They were worried that exotic pet imports on the island (both legal and illegal) would be harmful to the biodiversity of the island if they escaped or otherwise released into the wild. Our background information on invasive species was still applicable; therefore, the only changes we needed to make were in our methods of gathering future information.

Updating Our To-Do List

After we came to the island and started to work with DNER and collect the information we needed, we began to learn more about the agencies and protocols associated with the DNER’s control of the natural resources on the island. We also learned about the interactions between all of the environmental agencies present on the island. We conducted interviews with Hector Mongue of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as Dr. Collazo, the state veterinarian for Puerto Rico. This is a method of investigation that our professor calls “triangulation.” We were essentially trying to determine if what we had been told about the overall situation on the island was the complete and utter truth. While we had not been lied to by DNER, several other possible avenues of project work were suddenly opened up to us by talking to an outside source. In a panicked effort to define our project once and for all, we wrote a list of all of the potential paths we could take for our IQP:

1. Create the disposition protocol for DNER to use at the Cambalache State Forest.
2. Make several policy recommendations to DNER to improve their programs for preventing exotic species releases.
3. Create a database to promote the sharing of information between federal and commonwealth environmental agencies.
4. Develop environmental programs and brochures for DNER to education children on the dangers of exotic species.

Of these, we considered the first to be our primary focus for satisfying the requirements of DNER. Beyond that, however, we needed to make an executive decision on how to expand our project to have a greater positive impact on the island. After a meeting between our liaisons and professors, we decided to focus on the disposition protocol, policy recommendations, and database framework creation. We felt that these three gave us the best possible avenues for recommending improvements to the practices and policies of our sponsor. We removed the educational program idea, although one of our recommendations may be to establish a more advanced educational program in the future as a preventative method for dealing with exotic animals.

Now that we have our areas of interest clearly defined, gathering the information to make educated recommendations was far easier. A few days ago we traveled to San Juan’s main airport to set up an interview with a customs inspector there. We have another interview scheduled for this week with Sra. Boneta, a lady who is very supportive of WPI’s IQP programs and whose area of expertise coincides very well with our project on exotic species. Another task we have lined up for this week are phone interviews for government agencies in New Zealand, where their customs practices and environmental agencies are widely known for being quick and effective. Lastly, we are also planning to speak with contacts in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as several state environmental agencies such as those in Florida

We’ve also submitted the first draft of the disposition protocol to our sponsor, and we are awaiting specific feedback on the document itself. We also created a quick decision-making flow chart for the officials to use when they are processing an individual animal (English and Spanish versions). The protocol contains three options for disposing of a confiscated animal: Release into the wild, keeping the animal in captivity for the rest of its natural life, or killing the animal humanely. The choice of which option depends on several things, such as the endangered status of the animal, its health, whether its original habitat is known, and whether it could be used for any educational programs on the island. This protocol is advantageous because it is a quick and effective way of processing the animals that the DNER comes into contact with. It is also not biologically harmful, since it is edited by the biologists in the department, and it is an objective way to decide the fate of each individual. We hope that the DNER will make full use of it once a final version is drafted and published. Sarah and I need to make sure that the document is legally sound and that it gives due credit to the sources we used to create it. Citation of sources is perhaps the most painful part of the IQP, but it’s a necessary evil in a world where misinformation and bias are common.

One pressing concern is our final presentation, which is scheduled for the afternoon of April 30th. All of the people we have interviewed have been invited to attend, and our liaisons at DNER will be there as well. To prepare for this presentation, we are performing weekly presentations to small groups of students and our professors. By April 30th, our presentation should be complete and it should flow smoothly.

Coming up Soon

In my next entry, I’ll talk about the results of our interviews scheduled for the next three days, as well as the two day trips we made over the three-day Easter weekend.