By Roberta Ward Smiley | Founder and President of LRFF
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.
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