Forest Soils and Queen Elizabeth National Park

Last week was a busy one! I finished the soil sampling by finding sites within Kibale National Park that were adjacent to the villages and farms I first took samples from. This was not quite as easy at it sounds. I found out that most of the forest that is directly adjacent to the farms I sampled soils from, is actually regenerating forest. These lands were once cultivated, then in 1993 when the official park boundaries were surveyed and established, farmers were moved off this land (sometimes by force) and the forest allowed to regrow. In future studies I will be very interested to see how the soils are responding to forest re-growth after cultivation, but this time I wanted virgin forest soils. That is where things got complicated. Access to virgin forest across from the villages I've been working in was extremely difficult to find. Especially when the Park does not have any good, recent forest maps that indicate trails and roads. Site selection was thus by trial and error, and involved a lot of driving around and frustration.

The end of the week was really much more fun. On Thursday morning I travelled south to Queen Elizabeth National Park. On the journey we crossed the equator and I was in the southern hemisphere for the first time. On Thursday afternoon I took a boat ride on the Kazinga Channel that runs between Lake George and Lake Edward. I saw an amazing number of hippos! I also saw elephants, Nile crocodiles, water buffalo, Uganda kob, a Nile monitor lizard and birds of just about every shape and size.

       
I spent the night at the Bush Lodge that is right on the Kazinga Channel. It was composed of permanent tents on stilts and was a nice place stay, although I didn't get much sleep, all the hippos and wart hogs surrounding the area were just too loud!

On Friday we left before sunrise and made our way to the Kasenyi Plains to drive the wildlife trails. We had a very fruitful morning spotting, kob, elephants, water buffalo, water bucks, a spotted hyena and a lion laying on top of a termite mound! We were very lucky to see a lion at all. My driver had spoken to many other guides that were frustrated they couldn't find any for their customers. 

In the afternoon we drove down to Ishasha where there are rare tree-climbing lions. The road down is only 70 km but it took us over three hours because the condition of the road was so bad. During the trip we came upon an elephant at the side of the road. We stopped, turned the car off and waited quite a while for it to cross, but it wouldn't move. Finally, my driver asked if I thought we could drive by, and I said yes, as along as we go slow. I now know better. As soon as we were about opposite the elephant on the road, it got scared and started to charge at us. Fortunately my driver had the presence of mind to floor it and we escaped unscathed.  

When we arrived at Ishasha, we found this savannah system on fire and were forced to turn back because the smoke was too thick to drive through. These savannah are burned regularly to prevent the trees and brush from taking over.

  

I stayed the night at the Savannah Resort Hotel, which was extremely nice, but not too expensive. The next morning, we left again before sunrise and returned to Ishasha with hope that the fires had burned out. This was the case and we were able to see a completely changed landscape as well as another spotted hyena, herds of kob, water buffalo, and topi and numerous birds. 

We drove around the roads and around known lion trees for 3 hours, but saw no lions and decided to head back north. On the way back up the terrible 70 km road, we finally found the tree climbing lions we had been looking for in Ishasha. The picture is not great because of the distance, but trust me, there are three lions in this tree. I had a much better view through my binoculars.

 

We finished the trip with a visit to some of the explosion craters along Crater Drive back in the north end of the park. It was a spectacular trip and I wish I could have spent more time exploring.   

I'm off to Kampala on Tuesday and I can't believe how quickly time has passed. I am looking forward to the indoor plumbing at home, but will miss the people here when I leave. 

A quick word about the roads here in Uganda. I have been on similar quality roads in the U.S., in the backwoods and isolated mountain passes of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. There are very few paved roads and most of my traveling to various villages and farms has been on dirt roads that are littered with pot holes and gouges left by rain runoff. One day returning from Fort Portal we came across a large ditch that had been dug across the road by the local farmer in order to lay some drainage pipe. There are also quite a few speed bumps. These are put in by the people living on the road after they lose a chicken or goat to someone driving too fast. Along all the roads, every few feet, you see a tethered goat. I asked my field assistant if the people used them for cheese and milk and she looked at me like I was crazy, then said “No, for meat.” I was surprised they don’t take advantage of goat milk because there are soooooo many goats. Sometimes calling what we are driving on a ‘road’ is too generous. One of the villages we visited in the Isunga region required us to drive down a track that was just a foot path in places and was extremely steep. Not a road that would be passable if at all wet! In fact, I can see now why there is not much tourism or research conducted in the wet season. Many of the roads I have been on would be extremely slick, because of the high clay content in the soils, or impassable if wet. Whenever we are out in these remote areas we are always keeping one eye on the weather.  

I finally visited the east side of Kibale National Park on Friday. We drove through the park to Bigodi. On our way we had trouble getting baboons to move off the road and let us pass. I guess there are a lot of tourists that pay no attention to the signs and feed them, so they like to hang out along the road. I’ve heard many are killed by traffic on the road because of this and I can believe this after seeing them not move for our vehicle. We also passed through a large herd of local cattle being moved to market. The animals are herded on 2-4 day continuous walks, before they are sold. While we were in the area I visited a village called Kyabakwere. When I interviewed several of the farmers and the chairman, I ended by asking what their main problems or concerns are with regards to their farms. I always ask this and have usually received a wide range of answers like, too much rain, too little rain, poor roads, poor market, lack of education and crop raiding by park animals. In this village however, everyone said crop raiding by monkeys (particularly baboons) and elephants was their only concern, even when pressed. The chairman also complained about a lack of education for the children, but this is also tied to crop raiding because the children must spend their time guarding fields against park animals instead of in school. In many areas I visited the tension between Uganda Wildlife Association and the farmers was high because of conflicts with the park, whether it is an issue of crop raiding or wanting more land for cultivation. As the population continues to grow and resources become more scarce, I can see that it will be a battle to continue to conserve the forests of Kibale National Park. 

     

My soil sampling has almost been completed! Next week I have arranged to hire a field assistant that knows the forest so that I can collect samples within Kibale National Park. I will use these soils as a baseline to better understand how soils have changed with cultivation around the park. I will be shipping 66 soils samples back to New Hampshire for analyses and this should keep me busy until I return here next June. I was thrilled to hear today that paper work for a Material Transfer Agreement from the Ugandan government allowing me to ship the soils to the U.S. should be completed in time for my arrival with the soils in Kampala on the 29^th.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I had my first experience with Ugandan medical services. I started to come down with something on Monday and by Tuesday night into Wednesday morning I was in pretty bad shape with a fever, severe achiness and chills, as well as a very sore throat. My bungalow mate Amy was very kind and rearranged her schedule so she could drive me to the Alpine Clinic in Fort Portal. With the aches and chills, and the conditions of the roads here, I’ll just say it was a pretty unpleasant 45 minute car ride into town. When I arrived, there were no lengthy forms to fill out; I just had to pre-pay the doctor’s consultation fee, which was 10,000 UGX (or about $4). In fact, before they did anything, I had to go back out to reception and pay for the service or drugs first. When I finally saw a doctor, and described my symptoms, he sent me over to the lab for a malaria test, which eventually came back negative. When I got back in to see him the second time, I again complained about my sore throat so he took a quick look with a big industrial strength flash light and immediately prescribed some antibiotics. Only two hours after my first dose my fever broke and I began to feel better. Don’t know what I had, tonsillitis, strep, or my field assistant’s diagnosis, mud flu, but I am recovering nicely now. 

As we were returning to the field station yesterday we came upon a relatively small tree with a large group of red colobus monkeys in dispute with another group on the road. As we passed through them their anger seemed to transfer to us and our vehicle and two males actually started chasing us. Amy had to stop for a couple still in the middle of the road and as the two males caught up with us I was sure they were going to try and jump through my window and I was going to have to fend off a monkey attack. Fortunately, we were able to make it through this monkey gauntlet un-scathed. Speaking of monkey gauntlets, today I was trying to get to another part of camp and my bungalow was surrounded by baboons. My cook had asked me to take some cheese and peas that were in a plastic grocery bag with me to the house I was visiting because there is a refrigerator there we have been using. Just as I was setting out she said “the baboons know that bag,” meaning they know it is likely to contain food. I had to go get my backpack so I could smuggle the food through the baboon lines. On my return, as I turned up the path to my bungalow I saw a large fuzzy shape. I made a noise and a very large male baboon raised his head up to look at me then laid back down on the path so that I had to go around the long way to get home. These baboons are, as someone else here has said, cheeky bastards.

First week complete

I had a full and fantastic first week in Uganda. I made a lot more progress than I had anticipated and am revising my plans to include more work in the upcoming weeks here. So far, I have visited five villages and collected 40 soil samples from 10 farms. I am still surprised by how dark and rich the soils look. I was expecting to be sampling nutrient deplete Oxisols here.  Next week I will be visiting villages in the Isunga area and collecting more soil samples. I have also arranged for a guide to take me into the forest for further soil sampling. The people I have met in the villages are all very welcoming and are so happy to get the soap we provide as a token of appreciation for their time. They are all very eager for me to return and share my results. I have had someone in each village say to me that they want me to tell them what to plant so that their fields can be more productive. I only hope I can provide some data that can help them in their land management decisions, but honestly, I don't know that I can live up to their expectations and provide them all the answers they need.

Their have been elephants passing through field station each night around 9 or 10 so we have all been avoiding the roads around here at night. I would like to see an elephant, but really would rather not stubble into one in the dark. The baboons have been staying in upper camp. I have a new friend there that had a bunch of bananas stolen by a baboon from here living room this week. This morning, I woke to find a large group of baboons behind my bungalow, including two very cute babies playing in a nearby tree.

Last night I went with a large group into Fort Portal to a dance club called Extasy. We hired a taxi for the evening that fit 15 of us and then danced until 3 am. It was a super fun evening and we turned some heads in the club, three mazungus (white people) dancing with the 12 Ugandan men who are field assistants.
 

Soil Sampling

On my second day of field work I decided to go ahead and start my soil sampling. We went back to Kajumiro and revisited the surrounding farms to get soils. Seemed like the whole village accompanied us to watch the soil sampling process. I think they were all impressed by my big steel soil hammer. After we finished in Kajumiro, we hiked down to another related village center, Kajumiro-Sempenda, that is more in the valley rather than the hilltops as is Kajumiro. Here we interviewed a large gathering of farmers, asking about which crops they plant and their farming practices, then we distributed soap to thank them for their time. The village women were thrilled to get the soap and did the traditional Bakiga dance for me. We had to hire a couple local men to help carry the soil samples and equipment back to the car when we had finished, it was a long uphill climb.

I was exhausted when I finally made it back to my bungalow, but had a fantastic meal awaiting me. My roommate and I have hired a local woman, named Gorret, to clean and cook dinner for us. She takes the literally fresh from the farm fruits and vegetables we buy and makes enough food to feed an army! Between the two of us we can hardly make a dent. Last night for example, we had waiting for us samosas, flat bread, two different kinds of veggie stew, guacamole, rice, potatoes in a tomato based sauce, and fruit salad with bananas, mangoes, and passion fruit. I am going to be completely spoiled by the time I leave here. 

First day of field work

I am finding internet net access to be extremely challenging here. There is only one spot at the Makerere University Biological Field Station where I am staying that I can get a good connection so I will probably not be posting updates as often as I originally planned.

Spent the day in a village called Kajumiro that is adjacent to the south end of Kibale National Park. The local leader gathered some of the farmers and we talked about what crops they plant, and where and when they plant them. When we finished the farmers danced for me and I handed out suckers to the children. I then visited several of the farms that I will sample soils from later. I was surprised to find the farms located on very steep hills. They all contained many different crops including rice, corn, cassava, banana, yams, millet, potatoes (Irish and sweet) and tomatoes to name a few. They all wanted their pictures taken on their farms and want me to bring back copies when I return to sample soils.