GlobalGiving.org: Project Hometree, La Tejona, Costa Rica

Project Hometree, a Great Project

Roberta Ward Smiley — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:35:40 GMT

The furrows at planting Sept. 2010

This past month Omar, Miguel and Kyra Hagl cleaned and replaced trees here at La Reserva for Project Hometree. Above you can see the furrows the planting crew cut in the deep African grasses to prepare the 8 hectares for planting last year. This is a labor-intensive project, preparing the land and now the maintenance. Miguel and Omar worked at cleaning and replanting for three weeks. Kyra Hagl arrived the last week and was a grand help planting replacements while the guys concentrated on the cleaning.

You can still see the furrows above but the trees are now taller than the grasses. We have one more year of maintenance on Project Hometree, this is a very successful project. In the majority of the planted areas the trees are growing at an amazing rate. There are lenses in the soil in all of our project areas where the trees just don’t grow well or not at all. Even the pasture grasses don’t do well. These lenses are usually a very fine-grained, red clay.

The trees one year later in the furrows

Miguel, me, Omar and Kyra Hagl w/beers

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LRFF 2012 Calendar

11,800 and Counting

Roberta Ward Smiley — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:02:22 GMT

Luis Angel and Eli digging the last holes

We finished the planting of Project Hometree on October 1st, 2010. The last week of planting was amazingly wet but the crew kept at it, covered in rain gear. I think this tropical storm was named Nicole.

8000 native tree seedlings representing 84 different species were planted over the past five weeks. In the photo above are the senior members of the crew. Eli, at right, will be 75 years old this year. He didn’t miss a day, chopping the thick African grass with his machete, digging holes and, planting trees.

Last Thursday, when the Project Hometree crew finished the planting, we passed 11,800 trees planted so far in 2010. That’s almost 2000 more that 2009 already. Thanks to all of you and your great generosity we have been able to surpass last years total. Let’s keep up the good work and restore more forests yet, this year.
The photos tell the story of planting Project Hometree. Enjoy!

This week, October 4th, the same crew, minus Eli, is out maintaining all of the other LRFF reforestation sites. When they finish they will return again to Project Hometree for the projects first maintenance. We always try to come back soon after the planting for first maintenance because the new seedlings need attention. After that first cleaning they go on the normal four time yearly maintenance. My friend Michele and I were talking today, envisioning the future. With all the new projects we’ve embarked upon there will probably be a crew out doing maintenance full time.

LET’S KEEP ‘EM PLANTING!

Babies ready to go in the ground

The perfect hole and, hey, look at that beautiful

Miguel and Omar, placing the seedling in the hole

Tamping the dirt down around the baby

Baby in the ground, its new and permanent home

Omar with another one in the ground

Juan Jose and Mario, the other team, six men in al

OUR HEROES!

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Babies In The Ground!

Roberta Ward Smiley — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 02:32:05 GMT

Digging the holes

Yes, that’s right, there are now babies in the ground, trees that is. We have finished the tenth day of work on Project Hometree and have 3500 native seedlings, representing 84 species, in the ground. On Monday, Ross Nicholson, a LRFF board member in the United States, came by to plant 50 trees and see the progress. The embarrassing part is that none of us took any pictures of him getting dirty. Last week, at the start of the project, the workers were cutting rows in the deep, matted grass. By the third day they began to plant. Half of the crew digs holes for the trees while the other half fill wheelbarrows with a wide variety of species up at the nursery. The wheelbarrows are hauled down to the rows, the trees are set in the holes still in their nursery bags and the hole diggers return to slit the bags open and plant each tree. See all of the photos I took today. The rains have been torrential and steady for weeks now. It’s been a great week for planting. Most of the trees haven’t suffered much shock. Every Friday Omar, La Reserva’s field manager for 8 years cries for a cold beer for all of the workers. I buy them tall cans and keep them ice cold. It puts a lilt in their step that’s for sure and ………

KEEPS EM PLANTING!

Omar Muñoz, La Reserva field manager

Loading the wheelbarrows

Ready to go

Seedlings in the hole waiting to be planted

All tucked away and in their permanent homes

Neem tree, exciting medicine for the future

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The Cosmic Soup

We're Off and Planting

Roberta Ward Smiley — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:30:55 GMT

The furrow where the trees will be planted

Yesterday, August 30, 2010, we began work on Project Hometree here at La Reserva.

Thank you to the McConachie family from Austin, Texas who were instrumental in completing the funding and to all of you who donated generously to this project. Because of you 8000 native trees are being planted, restoring eight hectares of tropical forest and increasing the habitat for the ever-increasing fauna at La Reserva.

The crew of workers worked yesterday and today cutting rows with machetes in the deeply meshed African grass. Today we brought some of the extra species we needed from the ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad) nursery.

The workers shoulders were tired this afternoon from chopping the past two days. Now that all of the species are assembled they will have a couple of days hauling them in wheelbarrows to the planting site and planting them.

Please be sure to see the photos, they tell the story better than words. We will keep you informed of our progress.

The crew chopping

Sharpening the machete

Unloading three truck loads of trees

Deep grass

At lunchtime today

Links:

Blog about Project Hometree

Come on Everybody, Let’s Get Planting!!

Roberta Ward Smiley — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:15:18 GMT

Heather amongst the trees she planted in June

We had many visitors at La Reserva during the month of July. One family, long time supporters of LRFF, came for two days of hiking in the reserve. On Friday, they revered Papa Loco, saw and heard many monkeys and birds. That night we all shared pizzas and played cards.

This family came to La Reserva in Costa Rica for the first time in July of 2007 as tourists. The three boys were younger, the youngest unable to make the entire hike with his mother. The father was so inspired that he went back home in the U.S. came out of retirement and began a carbon offset company. Now, three years later, his company has many qualified employees and is, in fact, two different companies working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through renewable energy projects, forestry and a new digital grid system for energy use reduction.

On Saturday morning we went over to the seedling nursery. I explained that we can’t plant more trees in the nursery until we have a project to plant them on because over time they become rooted in the soil at the bottom of the bags and are damaged when removed from the nursery. The 8000+ individuals currently in the nursery are waiting to be planted in Project Hometree when it is funded. We have three months of planting season left. Mom and Dad put their heads together and said they would like to finish the funding on this project enabling us to get planting right away.

As we wait for their donation and the ensuing “success” progress report, here are a few photos of our friend, Heather Armstrong, who volunteered at La Reserva in June. She is largely responsible for the healthy new inventory at the La Reserva nursery. Omar La Reserva’s nursery manager, was her best buddy, teaching her about collecting tropical trees and their propagation.

It is imperative this project be planted by November this year. It is 8 hectares of reforestation and in 5 years will be a young viable forest, responsible for sequestering a minimum of 120 metric tons of CO2 per year from our Earth’s atmosphere. The trees in the nursery, the animals in the existing forest wanting to increase and all of us, the volunteer planters, are waiting for YOU, our supporters, to help us implement this project.

Omar Muñoz with his trees

Heather with Gino the friendly Great Dane

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Delicious Rain

Mary Blizzard-Kelly — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:25:23 GMT

Looking up to Papa Loco, Hometree at La Reserva

The rains have begun in Costa Rica. It’s the perfect time for planting trees. Unfortunately the 8 hectares in this project can’t be planted until something is done about the African grasses that dominate the pasture. One option would be to spray the whole field with herbicides, but that would have a negative environmental impact on the area, including inhibiting the growth of newly planted trees. In addition, there are any number of animals who have made their homes in the dense matt of grasses. We don’t want to wipe out their entire habitat with poisons.

The alternative, therefore, is to use manual labor to clear multiple swaths across the field wide enough to allow young trees to grow to the point where they will out-compete the grasses. This tactic allows for a period of transition in which the species populating the area will gradually shift. It is also labor-intensive and time-consuming. We estimate it will take over a month to create enough clear space that the trees planted will be able to thrive. Of course, it will also create much-needed jobs for locals. (As in the United States, the down-turn of the economy has left many local people searching for work.)

Your help with this project will accomplish two goals. It will help provide jobs and it will begin the transformation of the last large open field on the La Reserva property back to native forest. HEADS UP! Next Wednesday, June 16th from 12 midnight to 11:59pm Global Giving will be matching all donation up to $1000/donor/project. Give a generous donation to Project Hometree on that day and remind your friends as well. Just think if you can only afford to donate $10 that donation will be $15, plus we don’t have to pay GG the 15% commission on these matching funds.

Caring for the babies

Toucan Sam at La Reserva

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THE RETURN OF THE WHITE-FACED MONKEY TO LA RESERVA

Mary Blizzard-Kelly — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 18:27:56 GMT

White-faced (Capuchin) Monkey

Ten years ago La Reserva was nearly all pasture land. Natural reforestation has allowed most of the property to once again become home to a wide variety of flora and fauna that needed the food and protection provided by forest and was absent in pastures. It has been exciting to watch the return of local and migrating birds and to see an increase in the population of sloths and howler monkeys. Roberta’s blog, which can be found at http//:lrff.org, notes when new species are spotted out in the forest. But it appeared that the white-faced (Capuchin) monkey which once thrived in the area was gone for good. The statistics about the declining population of all four types of monkeys in Costa Rica was a sad confirmation of that assumption. All four species are now on the endangered species list in Costa Rica. Last year when Roberta saw a single white-faced monkey there was a good deal of speculation about whether these intelligent primates were, in fact, coming back. However, as Roberta said at the time: “One monkey can’t do it alone!” So this year there has been much rejoicing at the sighting of a pair of Capuchin monkeys within the primary forest of La Reserva. There is great hope that they will be the beginning of a family group that will grow and occupy a niche in this forest preserve.

The last eight (8) hectares of La Reserva won’t return to natural forest without help. The imported African grass has formed a matt so dense that seedlings cannot take hold. Your help is needed to fund this project that will create more forest for all the species that thrive in this area, including the white-faced monkey.

Hummingbird resting

Young Mantled Howler monkey taking a siesta

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The Avatar Experience

Roberta Ward Smiley — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 21:50:18 GMT

Planting the collected seedlings in new nursery

The Avatar Experience Two weeks ago, today, we experienced Avatar in a 3-D cinema. It was amazing and blew me away. I felt as though I were “in” the movie. Walking along the Hometree’s branches was as if I were back home in the top of La Reserva’s own Hometree, Papa Loco, the giant Ceiba (Kapok) tree. At this cycle of the year the bromeliads have already flowered some months back and now the seedpods are dry. Within each seed pod there is a multitude very small seeds. On each seed is a fuzzy puff so that when the breeze blows the seeds are wafted along on the air and attach to another tree. When the rains begin in a couple of months some of the seeds germinate to create new bromeliad plants. These puffs in the air that follow me throughout the day remind of the puffs that were in Avatar. If anyone knows the name of them please remind me, I can’t remember. The point is that Avatar’s scenery was an exaggerated tropical, rain forest. Whoever came up with all of this has spent time in the tropical forests of the world, most definitely. This coming Tuesday, March 16th, global Giving will be matching all donations by 30% up to $1000 per donor. Here is our opportunity to get this project funded so that we can plant it during the rainy season. COME ON EVERYBODY, LET’S GET PLANTING!!

Baby Howler Monkey at Project Hometree

Parcelas school students at Papa Loco

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Progress at Project Hometree Here on Earth

Roberta Ward Smiley — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:39:09 GMT

Hometree in the David Alvarez pasture

Avatar, the biggest movie ever made was released on December 18th. The environmental message takes place on an alien planet that is a metaphor for Earth and what is happening here.

Giant Studios had commemorative wristbands made to give away at the screening party they held for the cast and crew on December 16th. Each wristband is embossed with AVATAR, GIANT STUDIOS and PROJECT HOMETREE. Together we created a small booklet that was attached to each wristband talking about the collaboration between Giant Studios and the La Reserva Forest Foundation with before and after photos of tropical reforestation.

Before the movie’s release we jointly created a new URL at http://projecthometree.org When this link is clicked it takes you directly to the LRFF website (http://lrff.org) and the new page we created there for Project Hometree. Giant Studios has also included Project Hometree on their website at http://giantstudios.com as one of their projects.

The “Project Hometree, La Tejona, Costa Rica” project at Global Giving has now earned $1307.00 from 20 donors. Thank you all for your valuable support. We are hoping to get these projects funded before the rainy season beginning in June, tree planting time.

We will be collaborating, directly or indirectly, on more projects in the future with our friends at Giant Studios. They are dedicated to restoring the world’s vital native, tropical forests for all the right reasons.

The first photo is of Hometree in the movie Avatar superimposed on David Alvarez’s newly planted corridor property done at Giant Studios. The second is a new shot of the Hometree here at La Reserva, Papa Loco. The last photo is of a new miniature orchid we’ve been seeing recently here.

Please feel free to post a comment or a question here. We appreciate any feedback. Your support comes in many forms.

Papa Loco, La Reserva's Hometree

Newly seen miniature orchid

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