Institute of Ecotechnics

09/06/2026

Engineering Meets Ecotechnics in the Puerto Rican Rainforest

An all-women team of Mechanical Engineering students from Ohio Northern University recently visited Las Casas de la Selva for the first phase of their Capstone Project.

Accompanied by Dr. Wami Ogunbi, the students explored the living systems of this long-term Institute of Ecotechnics project—examining water, energy, drainage, infrastructure, hurricane damage, forestry, and conservation. They also put their hands to work, digging a drainage ditch and planting 12 trees, including threatened endemic Puerto Rican species.

This is ecotechnics in practice: understanding how human needs, engineering, and ecological systems can work together intelligently within a real landscape.

Read the full story below. 🌿

An all-women team of Mechanical Engineering students from Ohio Northern University came to Las Casas de la Selva for the first phase of their Capstone Project. Over four days, they investigated infrastructure, examined hurricane damage, dug a drainage ditch, planted 12 trees, gathering the knowledge...

08/13/2026

08/13/2026

🌿Restoring Access to the Timber Forests

On 1 August, 24 Global Works students from across the USA joined the team at Las Casas de la Selva, an Institute of Ecotechnics project in Puerto Rico.

Working beneath giant mahogany, mahoe, ausubo, grenadillo, and tabonuco trees, the students cleared undergrowth, improved drainage, and constructed a debris dam in an area damaged by a landslide during Hurricane Fiona (2022).

It was a practical lesson in ecotechnics: understanding the movement of water through a steep tropical landscape and working with natural materials to reduce erosion, restore road access, and support the long-term stewardship of the forest.

Read the full story and see the photographs:

https://eyeontherainforest.org/after-the-landslide-restoring-access-to-the-forest/

A Global Works team of 24 students from across the United States recently joined us for a full day of hands-on forest-road restoration at Las Casas de la Selva. We ventured deep into our timber plantation lands, where the students worked beneath towering mahogany, mahoe, ausubo, grenadillo, and tabo...

07/23/2026

Exciting fungal research is underway at Las Casas de la Selva, Patillas, Puerto Rico!

What fascinates me most about the collaboration between Kurt Miller and Ari Puentes is how beautifully their different approaches complement one another.

Kurt’s long-term documentation of Puerto Rico’s visible fungi—through photography, field observations, and his work toward the first field guide to the fungi of Puerto Rico—is creating an invaluable record of the mushrooms appearing across the island.

Ari’s research takes us below ground. By collecting soil samples and analyzing fungal DNA, Ari can identify the hidden fungal communities associated with tree roots—including fungi that may never produce visible mushrooms during a field survey.

Together, their work connects the mushrooms we see emerging in the forest with the much larger fungal networks living beneath our feet. It brings together field observation, soil science, laboratory analysis, and comparisons among forests across Puerto Rico.

The samples collected at Las Casas will be analyzed over the coming months. We are especially excited to discover which fungi are living beneath and around the roots of our native Coccoloba trees—and how these communities compare with those found in other forests throughout Puerto Rico.

There is still so much to learn about the living world beneath the forest floor!

When we walk through a tropical forest, our attention is naturally drawn upward—to the canopy, the leaves, the vines, and the immense variety of trees. Yet beneath our feet lies another extraordinarily diverse world: a living network of fungi that helps shape the entire forest ecosystem.

06/30/2026

We are pleased to annouce that registration is open to our upcoming conference this July 16-20

An international conference on regenerative solutions to desertification. July 17–19, 2026 at Synergia Ranch.

06/26/2026

We were delighted to welcome students and faculty from Houghton University back to Las Casas de la Selva for another visit, led by John M. Rowley, Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry and Director of Science Honors. Having visited us previously, it was a pleasure to continue building this relationship through another day of learning in the rainforest.

The group explored our Ethnobotanical Trail with Erid Román, a young botanist and member of the Eye on the Rainforest Botanical Team. Along the trail, Erid introduced the students to the remarkable diversity of Puerto Rico’s native and endemic flora, sharing how plants have been used traditionally while explaining their ecological roles within the forest.

The group explored our Ethnobotanical Trail with Erid Román, a young botanist and member of the Eye on the Rainforest Botanical Team.

06/26/2026

At Las Casas de la Selva, Patillas, Puerto Rico, we often say that forests are built by many hands over many years. The rainforest surrounding us today bears the marks of countless volunteers, researchers, students, and staff who have contributed their labor since the project began more than four decades ago.

Trails, nurseries, drainage systems, restoration sites, and young forests all exist because people chose to invest their time and energy in a place they may only know briefly.

The students of Shoulder-to-Shoulder became part of that continuing story.

Thanks to Bill Cotter, Director of International Programs SStS, for bringing these teams to us.

We welcomed not one but two remarkable groups through the Shoulder-to-Shoulder (SStS) program.

06/21/2026

Consign Your Artwork🖼️
October Gallery is pleased to introduce a new consignment service for collectors wishing to sell artworks from their collections through the gallery.

For more than four decades, October Gallery has worked closely with artists, collectors and institutions internationally, building longstanding relationships founded on expertise, discretion and care. Our consignments service offers collectors the opportunity to place works with the gallery for resale, supported by our extensive network and experience within the secondary market.

We are currently seeking works by:
El Anatsui, William S. Burroughs, Ablade Glover, Brion Gysin, Romuald Hazoumè, Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, Julien Sinzogan, Gerald Wilde, Aubrey Williams and Kenji Yoshida.

For more info go to https://www.octobergallery.co.uk/consignments/
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Image: Romuald Hazoumè, Napo, 2022.
Found objects, 43 x 41 x 14 cm.

06/21/2026

06/19/2026

When the first mahogany seedlings were planted at Las Casas de la Selva, Patillas, in the 1980s, the goal was not simply to grow timber. The project sought to explore whether tropical forestry could be integrated into a functioning rainforest ecosystem.

Over the years, more than 40,000 trees were planted across the mountainsides of Las Casas de la Selva. These plantings occurred alongside the protection of hundreds of acres of native forest, creating a landscape where conservation, research, education, and sustainable forestry could coexist.

Every seedling in our nursery carries forward a vision that began more than forty years ago.