Anchorage-based Gunderboom Inc. has a contract to recover trees that were submerged during the construction of the Panama Canal in the early 1900s.
The contract is with Ardan International Group, a Panamanian company that pursues environmental projects with an emphasis on working with indigenous peoples. Gunderboom is training members from a local indigenous tribe to help with the project, which will unearth approximately 400 million board feet of lumber that lies in the murky waters of the canal.
The United States started building the Panama Canal in 1904. The canal was formed when the adjacent jungle valleys were flooded to create an elevated canal with a series of locks, or massive concrete structures, that lift ships up 85 feet to the main elevation of the canal.
Crews building the structure didn't cut down the trees before the area flooded more than a century ago.
After the U.S. handed over control of the canal to the Panama Canal Authority in 1999, the Panamanian government realized they could extract the trees and sell the hardwood.
The project will benefit the environment. The large number of high-quality wood being extracted is not coming out of the forest.
"For every board foot we extract, that's one less board foot coming out of a green jungle," Dreyer said.
Also trees decay over time when underwater, and that releases methane and greenhouse gasses. Extracting the trees reduces the amount of gas released into the atmosphere.
The work is primarily being done in two lakes, Gatun Lake and Lake Bayano.
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The contract is with Ardan International Group, a Panamanian company that pursues environmental projects with an emphasis on working with indigenous peoples. Gunderboom is training members from a local indigenous tribe to help with the project, which will unearth approximately 400 million board feet of lumber that lies in the murky waters of the canal.
The United States started building the Panama Canal in 1904. The canal was formed when the adjacent jungle valleys were flooded to create an elevated canal with a series of locks, or massive concrete structures, that lift ships up 85 feet to the main elevation of the canal.
Crews building the structure didn't cut down the trees before the area flooded more than a century ago.
After the U.S. handed over control of the canal to the Panama Canal Authority in 1999, the Panamanian government realized they could extract the trees and sell the hardwood.
The project will benefit the environment. The large number of high-quality wood being extracted is not coming out of the forest.
"For every board foot we extract, that's one less board foot coming out of a green jungle," Dreyer said.
Also trees decay over time when underwater, and that releases methane and greenhouse gasses. Extracting the trees reduces the amount of gas released into the atmosphere.
The work is primarily being done in two lakes, Gatun Lake and Lake Bayano.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
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