Summary

Preston returns from T1, and he speaks with Virgilio Paredes about the clear-cutting he (Preston) had seen. Preston notes that a year after his expedition, Conservation International (CI) visited the valley as a potential project for preservation. This organization works with governments and other organizations to save areas of great ecological value. The representative from CI found the area "pristine" (184) and saw the presence of spider monkeys as indicative of the fact that humans had not been in the area in a while.

The next day, at Virgilio's urging, Preston submitted a short article to the National Geographic website about his group's finds, and it went viral, gathering 8 million views. The President of Honduras ordered a military unit to guard the site against looters.

In the meantime, the news of the discoveries generated conflict in the academic community. Christopher Begley of Transylvania University...