Here are some photos of the first planted bamboo grove on Young’s Hill.
The view looking down the hill toward the chimp house:
The view looking up the hill away from the chimp house:
The bamboo will allow the chimps to hide pretty well. Here’s the perspective of a hypothetical chimp who may want to spy on the chimp house without being seen:
That’s a major first step caught on camera. Young’s Hill is going to be an amazing achievement and great for the Cle Elum 7 to be outdoors.
great photos , thanks for sharing , its great and so exciting to think what we will looking at this time next year 🙂
Just looking at these 3 pics brought tears to my eyes. To even imagine how these changes are going to affect these amazing chimps turns me into a weeping pile of mush!! There’s nothing better than a happy cry!
Our chimps are so lucky to have CSNW!!
“A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.” CONGRATS!!! Woohoo!!! Is this clumping bamboo or running bamboo?
Are the big dirt piles from digging post-holes? For structures or for fences? Will they have water out in the enclosure? Are you putting in below-ground irrigation pipe? Will there be electricity out there for any reason?
LOL – so many questions. 🙂
Fabulous!!!!
This is fabulous!
Oh my gosh!! It is better than I could have even imagined and it is only beginning. It is going to be so much fun to watch over the year. I can only imagine what the chimps think.
Anna – The bamboo on the hill is running bamboo. Booshoot also donated clumping bamboo for landscaping around the chimp house. The dirt piles are from digging holes for the climbing structure posts and for the trench for the subsurface irrigation. We ran a permanent water line from the chimp house up to the hill and installed a frost free hydrant at the end, which will ultimately be located within an artificial termite mound. The hydrant will supply water to the irrigation lines, as well as a lixit (drinking water spout) for the chimps and a hose connection for cleaning. We buried some low voltage irrigation control wire along with the water line, so that we can run the irrigation from a computerized controller back at the chimp house. But there won’t be any higher voltage wire running out there. For the first few years, until the bamboo gets well-established, we will need to water it. So we figured that subsurface irrigation, where the dripper line is completely buried beneath the soil, would be the most practical way to do that, given how destructive the chimps are. We’ll see how well it works!
I love the photo of inside a bamboo clump….imagining the view the chimps would see. Will the bamboo get big enough for them to climb?…or is it more of a shade/hiding thing?
OMG! It’s wonderful. I can’t wait to see them in it!
Thanks for the details, JB! I predict that subsurface irrigation will work well for the bamboo – run a close-but-not-too-close circle around the clump with drips every 12 inches instead of just one or two emitters. They’ll love it! Now – whether the chimps will ‘hear’ the water running through the lines and go digging after them remains to be seen. 🙂
I really like these messy stages of landscaping projects – digging trenches and holes and sinking posts and laying pipe and cable. It takes imagination and a lot of clever scheming to get the underlying structure of a space just right.
But what I like even more is when you’re done, and you can stand back and admire what you’ve accomplished.
What’s going to be GREAT fun is standing back and watching the chimps admire what you’ve accomplished!!! 🙂
This is so amazing. I so look forward to the day you capture their first taste of freedom for all of us to celebrate!
Thank you, Anna, for your questions and J.B., for your answers. It will be fun and interesting to see the chimps get out of the box! I love how this sanctuary is so carefully taking into consideration all that is involved into the care and safety of our beloved chimps. Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!!