Conservation · Chiapas
Conservation work in Chiapas: bees, water, fungi, and practical systems
Between leaving the Navy and studying botany at Oregon State, I spent the pandemic period based in San Cristóbal de las Casas while traveling through Mexico and doing hands-on conservation work.
This is a personal account of work I did in Mexico. I was based in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, and worked at Parque Encuentro and with Pies de la Tierra and Amor y Rescate de las Abejas. The work ranged from bee rescue to water systems, composting, mushroom cultivation, and regenerative agriculture.
Pollinator rescue
I helped rescue and relocate roughly 25 bee colonies. That included Africanized honeybees as well as native pollinators such as Melipona and mason bees. The work involved hive handling, relocation, building or adapting hive equipment, and learning how pollinator health connects to land use and food systems.
Regenerative agriculture and permaculture
I worked with crop care, animal care, composting, low-waste systems, and practical permaculture approaches. Much of the value came from seeing systems together rather than as separate boxes: soil, food, water, animals, pollinators, waste, and community.
Water and waste systems
I helped build and maintain irrigation and cistern systems and worked with vermicompost, humanure, and other low-waste practices. Living and working in a place where water access could not be taken for granted made water infrastructure feel immediate rather than abstract.
Fungi and restoration
I cultivated lion’s mane and oyster mushrooms using bags, logs, buckets, and outdoor beds, and worked with mycoremediation concepts and field methods. That experience later fit naturally with my formal work in botany, plant pathology, and mycology.
Why this is on the site: this conservation chapter is part of my background. It does not make every environmental question simple, and it does not replace local knowledge, Indigenous stewardship, engineering, or site-specific science.
