UPSE in Spanish stands for ‘Unidad de Prestación de Servicios Ejidales’ which translates to Unit for the Provision of Ejido Services. Ejijo, in this context, means land that is used for agriculture and is protected by the state. Their mission statement in English is “Provide forestry technical services efficiently and with quality to the properties of our organization for the sustainable use of the forest, thereby ensuring the protection, conservation, and management of forest resources, to the benefit of their producers.”
Forest Engineers Luis and Alan
My role in this organization is to assist four forest engineers. Every morning, we arrive at the office and say good morning to everyone by a firm handshake. Luis, my section’s leader, informs us which district we will be going to and our tasks. But before we leave, we get breakfast and sometimes instead of eating at a restaurant, we have breakfast outside in nature. After we’re energized, we hit the road. The ride to a district can be anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours. We use this time to get to know each other which I enjoy.
Smells like Christmas
Once we arrive, I’m instructed to follow one of them, if we are doing inventory. Inventory has many branches of work but the one I do regularly is where they mark trees that need to be cut down either because they are infected, burned, crooked or are of age. They make three marks on the tree with an axe. The first two are on the sides of the trees’ truck, about 5 feet high from the base. They cut into the bark and expose the actual wood. The last mark is at the base of the tree. The marking process is the same as the first two, but they pound a blue seal at the base; which indicates which headquarters marked it. As they mark them, I’m in putting it into a data sheet. For example, they’ll say, “25,10”, which means the tree’s diameter is 25 cm and its height is 10 meters. After we’re done, we input this data into a software program and it measures, in cubic meters, the volume of material that’ll be cut down. This data is then given to those who actually cut them down, so they don’t over cut. As we walk and look for the trees, they teach me the different species. I can now identify trees by first glance.
Lost a Ring?
Other days I paint trees and, on these days, I can be on my own. The trees have a ring around its trunk made by shaving the outermost layer of bark with a machete. We walk in the area and find these trees and paint a yellow ring. It’s challenging for me because the ground can be slippery, caused by the dried pine needles and steepness. But I push myself and even mark trees that are on the edge of a cliff. We stop marking until we finish the paint in our makeshift paint buckets. We walk back to the truck, hydrate and cool down. As we leave, we see our work and laugh at the ones with wonky, uneven rings. You can tell which are mine because as Alan says, “it looks like you drew it with a pencil”, which means there’s no paint dripping down the tree.
My Impact on the Community
Outside of work, I tend to go into hermit crab mode. Not only because I get tried from hiking all day, but I find it difficult to conversate with my family. I was nervous before arriving in April. Not seeing them in a long time was a factor in that, but more of in the sense that I am very different from them and I anticipated conflicts.
Parque National Mexiquillo
I consider myself to be a free spirit and being here has shown me that it comes with responsibilities and patience. Chauvinism is a norm here and I see it everywhere and every day.
I am very grateful for Queen Zabriskie and her class ‘Dialogue Across Difference’ because it taught me to have patience and to ask intellectual questions when having difficult conversations. I’ve been putting what I learned into practice here and I’ve avoided conflicts. In return, I give perspective to those I conversate with and I gain perspective as well. I hope to show both men and women that women are capable of being their own beings. Not only where I’m living but at work too. I’m the only woman working out with them in the UPSE No.6. I’ve shown them that I have the stamina to keep up with them in the extreme conditions they work in and I’ve expressed morals and beliefs that have opened up their minds.
Educational Goals
I have a lot of lonely memories in my childhood, but my companion in all of them was nature. I would sit still in a creek or in a chair and observe the beautiful setting that Sedona is. I became very fond and protective of nature because of the peace it brought me. But in my first couple of weeks of co-op, I felt guilty. I saw trees getting cut down and I did nothing.
As the weeks went by, I got used to seeing trees as a commodity. I realized how easy it is to succumb to convenience and price tags. How out of sight, out of mind does so much damage. And how voiceless a norm you want to change can make you feel. I don’t enjoy seeing them get cut down but what keeps me wanting to show up oddly is guilt.
Guilt is a feeling that’s very difficult for me to let go of. It’s difficult to move on from something when I think there was a better way to do something or that I simply could’ve done more. Something that has helped me a lot is advice from my superior Ash Cummings. Experiences are meant to be enjoyed in the present; to live in the moment and to not stress about what I’m not accomplishing now. Feeling overwhelmed isn’t an option for me. I’ve been given the opportunity to experience this commodity from start to finish and in the future, I intend to come back with the knowledge to effectively protect the forests here and in many places. 
Apart from spending time with family and building friendships with my coworkers, something that I’m very grateful to have discovered while on co-op is the meaning, explanation of the comfort I felt as a girl when I was outdoors. I still feel it now when I’m out working or enjoying a hike and the feeling is forgiveness. Nature doesn’t choose prejudice. Even after turning a blind eye, it still fills me with warmth, peace and clarity. I’ve realized that showing someone forgiveness gives them the option to do good, not only for themselves, but for others. Their forgiveness turned my guilt into a virtue and I’ll cherish that forever.
-Esmeralda Herrera, CCMA
