Climate Action Costa Rica Project #4416

Help La Reserva Grow Forests, Costa Rica

by La Reserva Forest Foundation

Project Report | Apr 26, 2010
DOING MUCH WITH LITTLE

By Mary Blizzard-Kelly | Founding member of LRFF

Queen Achmea Bromeliad Flower

The work of La Reserva is done on a shoestring. Nevertheless we continue to grow and plant more trees. Two years ago we planted 1,000 trees, last year we planted 10,000! The work done with local school kids is but one example of the way we have begun to educate the local population about the importance of native reforestation. La Reserva itself is a dramatic example of how reforestation brings back wildlife that have been disappearing.

All this work is done out of a tiny dining-room which we daily convert into an office, all computer work done on a Mac that was bought used 5 years ago. The fact that we are now able to connect to the internet from that office rather than having to go to a different location has made us more efficient, granting more time to search for possible funding opportunities and to work on documentation for our projects, among a myriad of other tasks. A new computer with up-graded software will make our work much more efficient and effective. It will help us reach our goal of planting at least 20,000 trees this year and hopefully 100,000. You can help by donating today.

KEEP US PLANTING!!

Fun in the Forest

Headquarters at LRFF

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Mar 15, 2010
HOMETREE INVADED BY SCREAMING MASS OF FLESH!!

By Roberta Ward Smiley | President and Founder, LRFF

Presentation in Parcelas

This past December the local biological corridor council for Lake Arenal and Tenorio Volcano received a grant from the United Nations Small Grant Program. Since the council didn’t have non-profit status as yet LRFF has acted as an “umbrella” for them and is administering the funds. Part of the agreement is that LRFF “counter share” an equal amount of the grant donated work along with the local council. I, Roberta, am the acting coordinator for the council and Daniel Spreen is an active member. Our task, according to the work plan, is to give presentations to four of the local schools near La Reserva, plus create a seedling nursery, and bring the children up to La Reserva to collect seedlings that are then planted immediately in the new nursery. The students will care for the seedlings for six months and plant them in a reforestation project in their community that they will decide upon. This past week we finished giving the presentations to all of the schools. Thursday, March 11, Daniel, Rusty Holzheimer and Omar Muñoz helped the students at Parcelas create their small seedling nursery. On Friday the students were supposed to arrive by bus down at the corner. Rusty, Dan and I got in the car to go escort them, walking, up the hill to La Reserva. When we got out to the gate there was a full bus, standing room only, of children from 9 to 12 years of age. There were over 50 of them counting the three teachers and director of the school. WE WERE INVADED BY A SCREAMING MASS OF FLESH!!!! The bus dumped them at the entrance, we put each students name on a plastic bag and told them to collect five tree seedlings each. When they had five they were to give the small bag to Omar. He then put all of the bags in two large grain sacks to be carried over to the school immediately afterward, and planted in the new nursery. Down the road we went (see photos) with all of the children pulling up all kinds of plants, bringing them to us and asking “Roberta, sirve esto?”. When everyone had their baby trees they sat down in the road and had a snack. Omar (he is a Parcelas resident and father of two students) wanted to take all of them down to see Papa Loco, the giant Ceiba (Kapok) tree. He took the lead, I stayed in the middle of the group and Daniel brought up the rear. I was a bit worried about snakes or other varmints that might want to bite the kids, then realized there was no need to worry because EVERY LIVING THING IN THE FOREST would be high tailing it away from that screaming, laughing, running and cacophonous mob. When we returned the bus driver had gone back to the village and brought a big cooler full of hot rice with sausages (chorizo). The teachers served it with beet salad and coke. Everyone sat on the ground eating a nice lunch. What a party!! After lunch they all loaded back on the bus, Rusty, Omar and I got in Rusty’s car and followed them back. All the way over, in front of us, hands were grabbing branches and the screaming continued. The cows in the pastures stared as this screaming mass as we passed several farms. The sun blazed down upon us, at midday, as we planted the 250+ seedlings in their little containers that will be their homes until they are big and strong enough to plant out. You know, even though we were all over-heated and tired of the melee, as I rested that afternoon a smile kept creeping onto my face with a giggle, as I saw the mental image of us adults in the middle of that screaming mass of flesh. This coming Tuesday, March 16th, Global Giving will be matching all donations by 30% up to $1000 per donor. Please help LRFF continue our work in educating the communities that are responsible for restoring the tropical forests of the world and creating biological corridors to connect up the “forest islands” here in the tropical belt around our Earth. COME ON EVERYBODY, LET’S GET PLANTING!!

Students arrive at la Reserva

Collecting the seedlings

Planting the collected seedlings in new nursery

Lunchtime-Oue Rico!

Honeycreeper, a beneficiary of our work

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Feb 25, 2010
Keepin’ Em’ Down

By Roberta Ward Smiley | President and Founder

Entering the deep primary forest at La Reserva

This little project has received only one donation of $100 so far. The donor is the real news, our friend, Paul Hynek, Director of Business Affairs at Giant Studios. They are responsible for all of the digital effects in the movie, Avatar. Paul took a look at this project page, made his donation telling me that he was a big believer in “priming the pump”. Now that the pump is primed, let’s keep the pump pumping! Thank you again to you Paul! You are our angel to.

Since there hasn’t been much activity on this project it’s a good time to show the support that the LRFF inspires. This past December 12th we held a candlelight vigil here are the La Reserva headquarters. The vigil was strategically planned all around the world to coincide with the break in the COP15 summit in Copenhagen. Groups like ours were asking the negotiators to settle on a “Real Deal” for climate change. Of course, we all know now that there was no real deal, but the demonstration of strength that WE THE PEOPLE of the world showed made all of us ever more determined to do something positive for our Earth RIGHT NOW.

The photos here show the members of the board of LRFF plus the huge network of volunteers who support us, in one way or another, in our local area. Imagine, too, not everyone could attend. You see us filing into the deep, darkness of the primary forest of La Reserva. All of us down at the base of Papa Loco, reading a statement to the world while being filmed. Finally we climbed back up from Papa Loco.

Every day, every hour, every minute the LRFF is working to reverse the effects of global warming that cause so many other side effects, i.e., water shortages, loss of topsoil, famine, drought, water in the cities of the developed world that have so much salt ppm it is on the verge of making everyone sick and most important air that is continually becoming more toxic because of the amount of greenhouse gases. One of the main focuses of the vigil was to have the world bring the parts per million (ppm) of CO2 back down to a safe level for human life. That means down to 350 ppm from the 387 ppm that we are living in now.

Please support us in growing forests to achieve a more balanced and healthy Earth for all of us to live on. Our computers get more aged every day yet our workload continues to increase. This office upgrade is much needed for us to restore tropical forests. They are the #1 defense against global warming.

COME ON EVERYBODY, LET'S GET PLANTING!!

LRFF's members showing solidarity for Earth at Papa Loco's base

Climbing back home from Papa Loco

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