Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: These trees are massive.
They've been here for thousands of years. In fact, here it's saying that when the first Europeans got to the coast of Chile, these trees, they already had more than 1,000 years.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: I freeze mid step, raindrops bouncing off my hood as I follow Rafa's pointing finger.
Through the mist stands an ancient alerce tree, its massive trunk gnarled and weathered by thousands of years of Patagonian storms.
I place my hand against its rain slicked bark, feeling the rough texture beneath my fingers.
There's something profoundly humbling about touching something so ancient.
When this seedling first pushed through the soil, the Roman Empire hadn't yet been founded.
Water dripped from the canopy high above, filtering through a complex ecosystem of bromeliads, ferns and mosses that cling to the Alerce's massive branches.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: In this forest that you can have kind of a spiritual experience, but also like feeling that you are getting on a temple. In a way, this is the nature in its most monumental beauty, you know?
[00:01:16] Speaker B: As I stand in the presence of this ancient being, I think about the remarkable twin twist of fate that saved this forest from chainsaws and bulldozers.
How one man's vision, controversial as it was, transformed this corner of Chile into what many consider the most pristine temperate rainforest left on earth.
And how this place now stands as a living laboratory for one of the most ambitious ecological restoration projects in history.
This is pumaling Douglas Tompkins national park. Spanning nearly 1 million acres and storing an estimated 229.3 million metric tons of carbon, this park represents not just wilderness preservation, but a revolutionary approach to conservation.
Welcome back to Rewadology.
I'm Brooke Mitchell and today we're continuing our journey through Chile's remarkable route of parks of Patagonia.
After exploring the windswept plains and puma territories of Torres del Piney, venturing to the marine influenced landscapes of Cape Forward, where two oceans meet, and discovering the crucial wetland ecosystem near Puerto Valares. We've arrived at what many consider the ecological crown jewel of Chile.
Pumalin Douglas Tompkins National Park Getting here was an adventure in itself. From Portamont we drove to a tiny airstrip where a modest building, not much more than a seating area, a desk and a single bathroom served as the Busch Flight company's terminal.
I smiled with excitement. I love bush bush planes as they only mean one thing. You're traveling somewhere truly remote. The last time I'd flown in one was between the northern and southern region of Brazil's Pantanal wetlands on the search for Jaguars.
Before boarding, Rafa insisted we all grab window seats. He'd flown this route countless times during his decades running birds Chillike, and his enthusiasm for the journey hadn't diminished one bit.
Even with today's cloudy forecast, he assured us the aerial view of the coastline with its fjords and glimpses of volcanoes, would be spectacular.
He was right.
Though the cloud cover obscured many of the mountain peaks, for the next half hour, I was absolutely glued to my window camera, clicking constantly as we skimmed above deep blue fjords that cut into the coastline like fingers and caught occasional glimpses of volcanic silhouettes through the breaks in the clouds.
When we touched down at a small airstrip, our driver was waiting to take us into the town of Chaitan, the gateway to Pumaling.
As we drove, I got my first real glimpse of where we'd be spending the next 24 hours.
Let me try to paint this picture for you.
Imagine a landscape where everything is super sized.
Massive, jagged mountains thrust dramatically skyward, their peaks periodically disappearing into heavy, dark rain clouds.
In the background looms the perfect cone of Chaitan volcano.
Every shade of green you can imagine blankets the lower slopes, from the deep emerald of ancient forests to the bright lime of new growth.
Rivers swollen with rainfall carve silvery paths through valleys so steep and lush they seem almost prehistoric.
The contrast with our previous stops on this journey couldn't be more striking.
Gone are the arid ecosystems of southern Patagonia.
This is a temperate rainforest, a rare ecosystem that once covered much of southern Chile, but has been reduced to fragments by centuries of logging and development.
What makes Pumalin extraordinary is that it contains the single largest remaining stretch of pristine Valdivian temperate rainforest on Earth, where coastal forests receive approximately 6,000 millimeters, which is 236 inches of rainfall annually, creating one of the wettest temperate forests on the planet.
Our journey into Pumalin began in Chaitan, a small town with an extraordinary story of its own.
In 2008, the nearby volcano, dormant for 9,000 years, suddenly erupted, burying much of the town under ashen mud.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: This area was affected by a big eruption that caused a lot of damage to the local community of Chaiten. They had to leave their homes for a few years because of the washouts that the eruption caused.
There were casualties, there were loss of life. When we have eruption in the Andes, usually the highest temperatures cause that tons and tons of metric cubic of water comes down from the hills, basically the slop of the hills, and cause what we know as washout or lars. That's the technical Name and that amount of water, take with it debris, trunks, rocks, and destroy all what he found on his on his way.
And that's what's happening here.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: This balance. Living alongside natural forces rather than trying to control them is a reoccurring theme in Pumalin.
And nobody embodied this philosophy more than the park's founder, Douglas Tompkins.
If you've ever worn a north face jacket or eastbrit clothing, you've encountered Tompkins first legacy, the retail empire he built before walking away from it all at the height of his success.
But here in Patagonia, people know him for something entirely different.
As the American millionaire who bought vast tracts of Chilean land and in an act that stunned the world, gave it all back to create national parks.
In 1991, Tompkins began acquiring private land for conservation purposes through his nonprofit foundation.
Over the years, he and his wife Chris, assembled what would become the world's largest private nature reserve manage as a public access park.
When Tompkins first began purchasing land in Chile in the early 1990s, his intentions were met with suspicion and controversy.
Many locals and government officials question why a foreigner would acquire so much Chilean territory, especially since the holdings stretch from Argentina to the Pacific Ocean, effectively cutting Chile in half, which some officials even described as a security threat.
Rumors swirled about his true motivations, ranging from water rights speculation to creating a separate enclave.
Time would prove his conservation intentions were genuine.
Pumalin received official nature sanctuary status in 2005 and was designated a national park in 2018, prompted by Tompkins Conservation's donation of almost 725,000 acres for the new, roughly 1 million acre park, named in honor of its founder.
What's remarkable is that approximately 98% of the park's land was purchased from absentee landowners, people who held the land as an investment but weren't actively living on or working it.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: This national park is so special because it's one of the best preserved temperate rainforests that we have in Chile.
It has a lot of areas of primary forest pretty much untouched. I just getting in mind examples as the timber industry in the south of Santiago that basically destroy all the native forests that were replaced by pine and eucalyptus. Here we still got a pretty healthy environment.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: From this vantage point, we can see what makes Pumalin's geography so special.
To our west lies the Pacific Ocean. To our east, the towering Andes.
Between them stretches a narrow strip of land that captures moisture from the sea and creates perfect conditions for these ancient forests.
The park encompasses this remarkable convergence of temperate rainforest, fjords, expansive Pacific coastline, and Andean mountains in the distance. The park's famous volcanoes crown the landscape with thousands of waterfalls cascading down from glaciers and steep granite walls.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: We have a lot of humidity that come from the Pacific. We have the Andes mountain range that has a function in a way to keep most of the humidity in the Chilean site.
So the rain concentration falls mostly on the west side of the Andes at this latitude that it's a good thing, because in a planet that is drying out, the fact to have still a lot of water here is a blessing, is a gift and is also a key to preserve this forest.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: From Chaitan, we made our way to the park headquarters at Caleta Gonzalo, a cluster of beautifully designed buildings that serve as both visitor center and administration facilities for Pumalin.
The architecture here follows a Tompkins philosophy. Structures built from local materials and designed to complement rather than compete with the natural landscape.
But it's not the buildings that take my breath away. It's the surrounding vegetation.
As we step out of the vehicle, I'm greeted by what can only be described as a Patagonian Jurassic Park.
Enormous nauka plants or Chilean rhubarb unfurl leaves larger than my entire body.
Giant ferns create a prehistoric canopy overhead.
The scale of the vegetation here makes me feel like I've been shrunk down to an insect.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: The landscape looked like a Jurassic Park.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: It looks exactly like Jurassic Park. As we've been joking this whole time, we're waiting for a T. Rex or a pterodactyl or something to just come out of these ferns.
This place feels ancient.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: It is, yeah. This is a fumcat. It's a tree that looks like a fern, but it's a species of tree. This is the canelo, one of the sacred trees for our native culture and population of huiiches.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: As we explore the visitor center, Rafa explains the vision behind the root of parks of Patagonia and how Puma fits into this ambitious conservation corridor.
I'm struck by how his explanation echoes what we've heard from other conservationists along our journey. From Nico Lagos and Torres del Paine, Gabby and Kate Forward, and the Lagado, Chile team in Potovaras.
There's a consistent philosophy underpinning this entire project.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: Today, we project the route of the park of Patagonia to. To be the most important.
I know, I think that the most important is not the correct word. We want to project it as one of the best example of travel as a consequence of conservation, basically. So we want that this area become a Great destination for conservation, adventure travel. But always thinking about destination that need to be have an activity that need to have a positive impact. Have involved the local communities.
National parks are first areas of conservation and then as a consequence of that we can have travel, not the other sites.
National parks are not made for travel, are made for conservation. But we can do good travel in the national parks and project an economy based on sustainable travel, responsible travel.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: From the headquarters, we drove deeper into the park for our first real hike through the temperate rainforest.
The trail takes us through the heart of Pumalin, showcasing the incredible diversity of this ecosystem.
Though we haven't yet reached the famous Alerce Trail, the forest here is spectacular in its own right.
A dense, multi layered community of plants and animals that has evolved together over millennia.
As we walk, the rain has picked up again. But the dense canopy catches much of it, turning the droplets into a gentle mist. By the time it reaches us, the forest floor is incredibly soft. Underfoot, a spongy carpet of moss and decomposing leaves that has built up over centuries.
It feels like walking on a natural cushion.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: Can you feel the soil here, how it is? It's very soft because these are soils that need a lot of humidity. Water, we call them nyadis Niadis means floated areas.
So the humidity of the soil is a key factor also for the Alerces to grow.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: The sheer diversity of plant life is staggering. From tiny orchids to towering trees. And each occupying its specific niche in this complex ecosystem.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: This is a very diverse forest also.
It's a forest with a very high endemism.
It's a forest with a very rich presence of non vascular plants, lichens that can give you an idea about the quality of the air.
A lot of climbing vines, so epiphytes.
More than 25 species of ferns only in this forest that we like to call the miniature forest.
Because every single patch, piece of trunk in that composition is a hotspot of life of non vascular plant. It can become a shelter for some mammals.
Everything is connected here.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: I think about how these connections extend across the route of parks. The Taurus alpine pumas we track depend on guanacos, which depend on healthy grasslands. The marine ecosystems of Cape Forward are nourished by nutrients from the land.
The wetlands of the Mahin river filter water that eventually reaches the sea.
Now here in Pumalin, we're seeing yet another vital piece of this interconnected conservation puzzle. The afternoon light begins to fade as we complete our loop. The forest growing noticeably darker under thickening clouds.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: It's amazing how dark can be a forest.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: After our first encounter with this ancient forest, we hop back into our vehicle and head to our next destination, the legendary Alerce Trail, where we'll encounter some of the oldest living beings in South America.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: This is the entrance of the Alerce Trail, one of the most spectacular trails, I think of the park, even if it's not a very long trail, is a trail that basically tell us why it's so important to preserve this forest. And probably is the inspiration that Tompkins Conservation and Rewilding foundation had to preserve and create this wonderful national park.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: The trail begins innocuously enough, winding through a forest similar to what we explored earlier.
But as we move deeper, Rafa explains that we're about to encounter something truly special.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: We are speaking about species that can live more than 3,000 years.
It's a tree that was extensively logged in the past.
So when the Douglas Tompkins and the Tompkins foundation found this area and they realized that the world was still so much forest of aldersi trees well preserved, they had the inspiration, the strength to preserve the area and create a national park that is a national park. Pumalin Douglas Tompkins.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: As we walk, I ask Rafa about the ecological importance of these forests in the context of climate change.
His answer puts into perspective why preserving these ecosystems is crucial not just for Chile, but for but for the entire planet.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: The temperate rainforest of Patagonia store three times more carbon per hectare than the Amazon.
Carbon per hectare? Not in total. We're speaking about proportion.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: The wooden boardwalk we're following was itself built with conservation in mind. Ralpha points out this trail was built.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: With wood of trees that were already being laid or dead. Dead trees.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: Yeah. We are walking on a tree and we're like feet off the ground too.
Rounding a bend in the trail, we get our first glimpse of what we've come to see. A massive Alerce tree rising like a living column into the mist above.
It's difficult to process the scale of these giants until you're standing beside them.
The trunk is wider than a car, the bark deeply furrowed from centuries of growth.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Trees that have a very slow growing an average of 1cm of diameter every 20 years. And what you are seeing here is pretty unique because it's not easy to find a large forest anymore as in this condition and as well preserved in the valleys because the wood of the alerse is so good that it was locked for many years for construction because it has very, very good resistance to humidity. Look at this guy here.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: I'm not going to get over these.
I place my hand against the rough bark, trying to comprehend the time scale of this living being.
I think of the indigenous Mapuche and Huayiche peoples who would have moved through these forests for thousands of years, developing a relationship with these trees long before European arrival.
As we continue along the boardwalk, the trees become increasingly impressive.
Rafa points out a particular magnificent specimen.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: This one.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. I've seen four photos of this tree.
[00:20:56] Speaker A: Yeah, this is a famous one.
Usually it's in the pictures.
This is like 2 meters, probably 2 meter and a half. And when it's old, it concentrated, of course, all the leaves and branches at the. At the top.
Yeah. But when it's young, it has branches from the base to the top.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: How tall can they get?
[00:21:17] Speaker A: How tall? Yeah, I think that this would be like 30, maybe. This is a skyscraper between 30, 40 meters.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: As impressive as these trees are, Rafa explains that they remain vulnerable despite the protected status.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: The tree right now is protected, so the logging of this tree is forbidden by law.
It's possible still to collect the wood of dead trees, but that gap in the law also is a risk in the. In the sense that leaving that window open without good control can provocate that. Many people log living trees and then they say that it was just collected as a dead tree. We have to consider that unfortunately in Chile we don't have a great control of the law that we approve because we have a lack of park rangers.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: This is why visitor awareness is so crucial for conservation. Rafa tells us, for that reason, it's.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: So important that the people know these parks, because once you get to here and you realize what we have, what is being protected and preserved, how important is for the planet, how beautiful is, you become all ambassadors of this place and it's going to be hard in the future to put this place in a risk as more people is aware about its existence and its uniqueness.
Take a look at this giant here.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh.
I think all of us would have to put our arms together in order to get this thing all the way around.
As daylight fades, we drive to Caleta Gonzalo Lodge, another testament to Douglas Tompkins vision. The lodge, like all structures in Pumalin, was designed with meticulous attention to both aesthetics and environmental impact.
Built primarily from local wood and stone, it seamlessly blends into the surroundings while offering a comfortable retreat after a day of exploration.
This is part of the improvement impressive public infrastructure developed by Tompkins Conservation throughout the park, which Includes trails, campgrounds, cabins and viewpoints that allow thousands of visitors each year to experience one of Earth's largest temperate rainforests.
By the time we arrive at our lodge, the forest has faded to black silhouettes against the darkening sky and the soft yellow lights welcome us like a beacon in the wilderness.
As we prepare to leave Pumalin, I take one last walk along the lake and forest adjacent to the lodge. Shafts of morning sunlight pierce through the clouds, illuminating the landscape. It's a perfect moment to reflect on what makes this place so special and what it represents for the future of conservation in Patagonia and beyond.
Standing in this forest that stores an estimated 229.3 million metric tons of carbon, I think about how places like Pumalin are not just scenic wonders, but crucial climate solutions in an era of global warming. Protecting these carbon rich ecosystems is perhaps one of the most important conservation actions we can take.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: I think that we don't realize yet how important was the job, the task and the gift that Douglas Tompkins and Christine Tompkins gave to the Chileans creating all this national park. And now, speaking about the root of the park of Patagonia, I think that it's hard to realize how important is that legacy and how important it will be for the future generation.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: As I prepare to continue my journey through Patagonia's route of parks, I am carrying with me the images of those ancient illarse trees standing through millennia of changes, bearing witness to the resilience of life.
They remind us that true conservation requires patience and humility, qualities often in short supply in our fast paced world.
But I'm also thinking about the lessons from Chaitan Volcano. How destruction and renewal are part of the same cycle, how landscapes recover and reinvent themselves after catastrophic change.
This perspective seems particularly valuable in an era when we're facing unprecedented environmental challenges.
Next time on Rewildology, we'll journey to the icen region of the Root of Parks and explore Patagonia National Park, a remarkable conservation area born from what was once a massive sheep ranch.
We'll meet Alejandro Saavedra, a dedicated wildlife ranger and coordinator of Rewilding, Chile's breeding center, whose leading efforts to reintroduce Darin's rhea, a fascinating flightless bird that plays a crucial role in the grassland ecosystem.
We'll discover how this ambitious Rewilding project is restoring a landscape degraded by decades of overgrazing, creating hope for species that were on the brink of local extinction until then. I'm Brooke Mitchell and this has been another adventure on The Root of Parks of Patagonia I want to invite you to become part of something bigger than just this podcast.
This series is actually one pillar of a larger initiative called rewildology's Project Patagonia where conservation truly meets adventure.
Project Patagonia is built on three elements Listen, Experience and protect.
You're already participating in the first pillar by listening to this podcast series, but if you're inspired to go deeper, you can join us in the field for the second pillar experience.
In April 2026, I'll be leading a small group of just 10 people on an unforgettable expedition to trek Pumas and explore the majestic mountains of Torres de Paine National Park.
This intimate adventure includes expert led Puma tracking, meetings with conservation researchers, hiking through breathtaking landscapes, and even kayaking to the magnificent great Glacier.
You'll literally follow in the footsteps of the stories you're hearing in this podcast.
The third pillar, protect, is where your passion can translate into direct conservation impact.
Through our partnership with Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, your support helps fund crucial work to protect pumas and their habitats throughout Patagonia.
Your donations help bridge divides between fragmented habitats, develop solutions for human wildlife conflict, implement wildlife corridors and support cutting edge research.
Whether you choose to listen to this series, join our expedition, make a donation, or all three, you become part of a community dedicated to preserving one of Earth's most spectacular regions.
To learn more about Project Patagonia and how you can get involved, visit rebotology.com Project Patagonia Together we can ensure that the root of parks of Patagonia continues to thrive for generations to come.
