Plant 30,000 native trees Costa Rican owned farms

Here in Costa Rica, our workers have been  swinging their machetes with expertise and power to chop the constantly growing cattle grasses away from all the trees we have planted the last four years. It is absolutley necessary to retuirn to all the trees the first 4 years, otherwise the grases will choke them out and the trees will die. Thats why we focus on intently at the beginning of the season on cleaning and replacing any dead tyrees as part of our guarantee for every tree you sponsor. Death rates have been goping up over the past 6 years and this year again, mortality loss hovers around 12%. We remain satisfied, nevertheless, with the overall growth of the projects and simply accept that climate change has made the rains more intermittent which means the grass grows more and tends to choke trees during the summer season when it used to be much more dry with barely any rain falling. 

Once we finished maintaining all the 8300 trees under managtement, we turned our attention to planting more trees to keep up with our sponsors. We are currently in the process of  planting 1500-2000 more trees in Refugio San Antonio as well as 400 more trees with neighbors in a new area centered around the pineapple plantations. Its important to us to keep expanding into new areas where ´people are sturgglimng to make a living andf keep their land and or repair degraded zones from deforestation for cows. With good fair pay jobs, local families can regenerate their land and grow  alternative economies of forest products to sustain themselves long term. 

It´s really hard work for our crews day after day in the cattle grasses. We are so proud of their dedication and consistency and are thrilled to show you some recent fotos of our work together. Thank you for your continued support. All together, we are truly making a diffrerence now and for future generations. 

We are still in dry season in Costa Rica and beginnng to prepare for our planting season which will begin in May. Meanwhile, we are busy collecting seeds and producing baby trees in our tree nurseries, always  going the extra mile for seeds from rare and threatened trees. 

It really is so much fun to go on seed treasure hunts and so many people assist us in our local community. It´s a way people can participate actively in what we do while deeply feeling their own connection with Mother Nature. It never grows old and the women working in our nurseries to water and weed trees, fill bags and transplant and make bokosha compost  are earning a meaningful living while  also being part of a movement that gives back to NATURE in such a real way to benefit the future generations all over the planet.

This time of year, we also focus on administration and fundraising. We are attaching some google earth fotos recently downloaded inorder to show all of our generous sponsors how we are proceeeding with some of our projects. These fotos are from Refugio San Antonio from years 2022 and 2023 where we have planted over 5800 trees. WOW you can see the swaths from space. The greener foto you can also see some of the tiny trees poking out of the grasses and also the regeneration that we are encouraging with chopping away cattle grasses along the streams and the secondary volunteer plants for early shade. 

All the work we do is thanks to you Our Sponsors. We must admit that donations have been down and knowing that is is tough in the world, we want to give extra thanks for sticking with us. We feel the pressures out in the world and we will always believe that regrowing rainforest is a way to help every creature on earth. We all depend on the rainforest to survive. These trees breathe with us and give us healthy rain and drinking water and balanced global temperatures in these times of excess pollution and deforestation. 

THANK YOU !!