Build a community tree nursery in Costa Rica

Miracles are everyday work. The changes in our tree nursery were urgent. So even if we have only achieved $625 dollars of our real goal which is $2375 we still went ahead to build a space for the women who work in the nursery at temperatures that can go up to 104 F.  With the help of a local businesses, who donated some of the materiales, we were able to build the "casita" (little house).  We used our own melina trees for the structure, and part of the funds were used to pay the builder, and buy the materials that were not donated. 

We also were able to rebuild the structure where we keep the trees that are ready to be planted by farmers as you can see in the photos. 

To all our donors, our highest appreciation because you gave us the push to go ahead anyway!

Of course, there is al lot to do still- urgent repairs are still necesary: there are leaks in the roof that cause high humidity and more trees die becasue of this. The casita is not big enough to do some of the jobs, still done in the nursery.

The exciting news is that we may soon be selling trees to other countries...so expanding the nuesery has become more urgent than ever to be able to participate in this importan oportunity for ASIREA. 

So we have had a wonderful start and we hope more and more people can support this project which not only produces trees, but also helps the local economy through wood production and supports the environment by taking carbon out of the atmosphere. 

We work tree by tree to save the world. We appreciate you being part of our team!

Links:

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The beginning of the year for our nursery includes a great amount of upheaval, because every year we have to replant Mother trees so they, in turn can produce the shoots for all our new cloned trees. Incredible but true; only four people worked together to change 19 tree beds, creating a new force of 10,450 trees which are now beginning to produce shoots. Two students from the local high school who are studying agroecology are donating voluntary time to this huge effort. 

While replanting the beds, our normal production continued, although a bit lower than usual: we put out 20,000 trees. 

Still, the campaign in favor of our nurserycontinues- we have had 7 donors for a total of 420 dollars, lower than our goal of 3,000 dollars. It is important to remember that global climate change can be helped by reforestation, yet it is not known how much climate change is affecting small countries. Costa Rica is a very vulnerable country and we have had tremendous heat waves in our area this past month. The temperatures of our nursery are hitting 109 Fareinheight! This is why this particular campaign is so important: we urgently need to change work conditions by building a new special area next to the nursery which will be open and cool.

The great news is, thanks to donations recieved up until now through GlobalGiving and also material donations from our community, we are starting the building tomorrow!  It will be built under the shade of trees we had planted four years ago, with local materials such as bamboo and some of our own trees. Although underfunded still, we must advance and hope for continued support from people like you who are commited to the environment. Future donations will further the reconstruction of parts of the nuesery that have been destroyed by strong winds and rain.

We thank each and one of our donors, because this change is possible. We will be posting pictures in the near future of our work. This is going to be fun!