Kalain Ho­sein

The Asa Wright Na­ture Cen­tre and Eco-Lodge opened in 1967.

Now, over 50 years lat­er, it has closed its doors for the first time, send­ing home more than 40 em­ploy­ees.

Flo­ra and fau­na stretch along the na­ture site’s trails as far as the eye can see.

Asa Wright’s con­ser­va­tion land trust ex­tends across the Ari­ma, Aripo, and Gua­napo Val­leys of the North­ern Range, span­ning 1,500 acres.

The cen­tre’s main fa­cil­i­ties, in­clud­ing its eco-lodge, are on a for­mer co­coa-cof­fee-cit­rus plan­ta­tion in the Ari­ma val­ley. Along the many trails of the Cen­tre’s prop­er­ty, sev­er­al Chi­nese Palms are scat­tered, home to the Na­ture Cen­tre’s mas­cot, the Oil­bird.

The eco-tourism site is home to near­ly all lo­cal hum­ming­birds species, hun­dreds of birds, and but­ter­flies.

Be­cause of COVID-19, the cen­tre has fall­en on hard times.

How­ev­er, the cen­tre’s man­age­ment is adamant that the trust’s work to main­tain the premis­es will con­tin­ue.

Vice chair­man of the Asa Wright’s board of man­age­ment Ma­ri­na Nar­i­ne­sigh said, “We are in the process of do­ing al­most an au­dit of the cur­rent state of the ground. We’ve been closed for a few days, but na­ture takes ef­fect. It is alive, and every­thing grows. We are in the process of de­vel­op­ing sys­tems and pro­grams to en­sure the prop­er main­te­nance of the premis­es and the land­hold­ings.”

Asa Wright’s con­ser­va­tion land trust ex­tends across the Ari­ma, Aripo, and Gua­napo Val­leys of the North­ern Range, span­ning 1,500 acres.

The cen­tre’s main fa­cil­i­ties, in­clud­ing its eco-lodge, are on a for­mer co­coa-cof­fee-cit­rus plan­ta­tion in the Ari­ma val­ley. Along the many trails of the cen­tre’s prop­er­ty, sev­er­al Chi­nese Palms are scat­tered, home to the Na­ture Cen­tre’s mas­cot, the Oil­bird.

The threat of quar­ry­ing

An ever-loom­ing threat to the con­ser­va­to­ry has been quar­ry­ing, as the 1,500-acre span is not con­tigu­ous. Nar­i­nesingh ex­plained, “one of our parcels of land has been af­fect­ed by quar­ry­ing op­er­a­tors, which is ac­tu­al­ly a mat­ter in court. We’re en­gaged in lit­i­ga­tion in that mat­ter, and it is some­thing we con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor.”

How­ev­er, she ex­plained that while a part of the land was af­fect­ed, the op­er­a­tor’s new own­er has been re­spect­ful of the bound­aries.

In fact, the cen­tre’s man­age­ment has en­gaged the Min­istry of En­er­gy and the Min­er­als Di­vi­sion to mon­i­tor and en­sure there is no en­croach­ment nor quar­ry­ing on their lands.

There­fore the board’s pri­or­i­ty is on not on­ly main­te­nance but the se­cu­ri­ty of the premis­es go­ing for­ward.

The Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and Arts has reached out to the cen­tre’s man­age­ment, which Nar­i­nesingh has called “great news.”

Tourism Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell, in a state­ment, said, “The board has in­di­cat­ed that of para­mount im­por­tance is the main­te­nance and se­cu­ri­ty of the wildlife sanc­tu­ary, and they have promised to sub­mit their pro­posed re­quire­ments to me next week.”

Whats is next for Asa Wright?

Ac­cord­ing to both the chair­man of Asa Wright Na­ture Cen­tre’s Board Pro­fes­sor Ju­dith Gob­in and its vice chair­man Ma­ri­na Nar­i­ne­sigh, it is too soon to say.

Nar­i­nesingh ex­plained, “We are in the process of rein­vent­ing our­selves. I don’t know. I can’t say yet what that new mod­el will look like. We in­tend to con­sult with the ex­perts in the area to see how we can make our­selves more re­silient.”

“I re­al­ly can’t say ex­act­ly what it will look like in the fu­ture, but I imag­ine some part of that will be pub­lic ac­cess to these beau­ti­ful grounds and come and sit on the ve­ran­da one day and drink run punch­es.”