Reforesting the Deforestation in Costa Rica

Since we still lack all of the funding for “Reforesting the Deforestation” and consequently have nothing to report I wanted to take this opportunity to give you a shout about the Year End Campaign we’ve been working so diligently on. You may not know about our beautiful Facebook page where you will find great information on how your donations are working to make a HUGE difference in the world on many different fronts.

Rather than just ask people to GIVE donations my colleague Gretchen and I decided to make the Year End Campaign a way we can GIVE back to you. We wanted to focus on all the different facets of LRFF’s work so each week we talk about one, like GIVE {nature}, GIVE {education}…etc. You can see each of the weekly “postcards” attached to this progress report. 

We’ve finished this weeks focus on the environmental education programs LRFF has implemented in the past 5 years and next week we will be posting and talking about GIVE {air}. You can see all of the posts here, so if you’d like to learn more about how your generosity is making a difference please check out our Facebook page and like us.

For the Year End bonus campaign at GlobalGiving we have been directing people to another project we have posted there, “It’s For The Monkeys and 60 School Children”. It’s a smaller project budget wise and area as well so we prioritized it to see if we could get it funded and also win the bonus prize GG is awarding. This month we received a call from a young man and his father who are interested in taking the project as their own and fundraise at the son’s school to come up with the balance needed to plant the project. Not only that but the students (5) will come down to La Reserva with their parents to help plant the project.

LRFF's new website also went live this month and we are very proud of it, go check it out. http://lrff.org

Hope your holiday season is FULL joy and that you have much success in the coming year. Thank you for supporting us throughout 2014. Bless. 

LET’S GET PLANTING!

Links:

• La Reserva Forest Foundation Facebook page

LRFF has planted over 8000 trees in the past two months. We have confidence that soon we will be planting this project, "Reforesting the Deforestation" as a sequel to our latest success. Here's an update of our planting activities...who, where and how...don't miss the video link!

On the final day of planting "For The Monkeys", last of the Strack Transportation sponsored projects, we invited the student body of the Jardin de Niños in Delicias de Upala  to help us plant the last 150 trees. Gretchen, Jimmy and I arrived at the school early and we all marched down the street from the school to Elias Cruz's farm, about 50 meters. We picked up Octavio at the local police station, who wanted to be a part of the planting. 

The regular planting crew had a tough time digging the 150 holes fast enough to keep up with the kids distributing the trees and planting them. We also had 16 trees to plant, purchased by residents of the Commune Utopia in Second Life. We marched to another area of the planted corridor that had been set aside for the 16 trees and that's where the 16 trees planted in 1 minute video comes from. 

Santiago works for Elias on both his properties. We planted portions of both one in Chimurria and the other in Delicias, Upala. During the nursery growing and subsequent planting his wife, Trina, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Santiago was very proud of the fencing and planting work he was instrumental in. He was Jimmy's right hand man. Trina passed away two days after the children finished the planting in July. Gretchen caught the magical moment when a beautiful butterfly landed on Santi's arm and didn't want to leave (see photos).

Daniel Spreen, President and Co-Founder of LRFF/CR, was unable to participate in the planting or pre-planting activities due to a serious illness. There were shovels and plastic boxes that we'd left out in Delicias the final day because they were still needed by the planting crew to finish up. Two weeks after the last trees were planted Dan felt well enough to travel and we went to recover the equipment and plant four trees for another resident and follower of LRFF in Second Life.

Jimmy and Yamileth planted trees for Brugos, we loaded up and all left one last time on the most excellent road trip back home to La Reserva. Most excellent because of the amazing landscape. West between the narrow valley between two massive volcanoes, Miravalles and Tenorio, then south on a well traveled dirt road to Tierras Morenas and Lake Arenal where the La Reserva Forest Foundation is headquartered in Costa Rica.   

The perfect ending to an amazing journey...from our first meeting with Matt Strack 1 1/2 years ago to the climax of actually getting all of his trees in the ground (9500+). Thanks to all of you and to you Matt for believing in LRFF and taking responsibility for the GHG emissions your businesses activities generate.  

Links:

• Planting 16 trees in 1 minute