Space Invaders - Banana Cultures - page 33

Ironically, the drainage operations provided a fleeting home for water-
fowl, but the end product of the transformation—a banana plantation—
afforded little habitat for most forms of avian life. 35 The ornithologist also
visited Toloa Lagoon, where he saw Everglade Kites inhabiting a land-
scape of alternating marsh grasses and open areas of water. In time, much
of this area would also be drained following the construction of another
canal. 36 The expansion of export banana farms, then, altered both plant
communities (e.g., forests) and local hydrological systems.
The environmental changes that took place in the Ulúa valley were by
no means unique. In 1915, United Fruit initiated a second major railroad-
building operation in the department of Colón. In contrast to other parts
of the Caribbean lowlands, Colón had not been a center of nineteenth-
centuryexportbananaproduction.Agriculturalactivitypriortothe1910s
consisted of small-scale production of coconuts, rubber, plantains, yuca,
tubers, and grains. A handful of prosperous landowners near Trujillo
maintained several hundred hectares of cattle pasture. Although mahog-
any cutters had operated in the region for more than a century before the
arrival of United Fruit, logging was generally restricted to the banks of
the Aguán River. A 1911 government survey of the river valley described
''great forests'' filled with ''precious woods and medicinal plants.'' 37 An-
other government source described forests of ''great fertility'' crossed by
rivers and streams whose ''crystal clear waters'' were suitable for drink-
ing. 38 The first assessments made by United Fruit's surveyors predicted
that the region's extensive tracts of ''virgin soil'' would potentially yield
20 million bunches of bananas annually. 39
By1920workershadfinished86kilometersofmainlinethatstretched
from Puerto Castilla (near Trujillo) to a small work camp situated in
the lower Aguán valley. 40 Company banana farms covered more than
2,000hectares.Eightyearslater,GrosMichelmonoculturessprawledover
nearly 13,000 hectares; pasture covered an additional 3,500 hectares. 41 A
journalist described the view from the company train in 1927 as ''one
immense plantation.'' 42 Irrigation systems supplied about one-third of
the farms with water from the Aguán, Bonito, Cuaca, Mamé, and San
Pedro rivers. 43 Between 1922 and 1928, exports rose from 1.1 to 7.6 million
bunches.Duringthisexpansionaryphase,theTruxilloRailroadCompany
(United Fruit's second Honduran subsidiary) razed a quantity of timber
sucient enough to cause some of its employees to speculate that the ex-
tensive deforestation of the Aguán valley was the cause of a series of severe
droughts that hit the region. 44 The company also expanded into the Black
River valley where some 10,000 hectares of ''virgin land'' were slated for