August 02, 2007

Who Are These Seedy Characters?

Seeddonators

Yes, these seedy characters are, from left to right, Joe Silverman from La Jolla, California and Wally Razanauskas from Quebrada Grande, Costa Rica. This past Tuesday, July 31st they donated 13,464 seeds of 8 different species of precious woods to the La Reserva nursery. These include, 2 types of Mahogany, Cortesa Negro, Teak, Roble Sabana, Guapinol and Cocobolo. They went all the way to the CATIE seed bank in Turrialba and bought them for us. We will give Joe, who purchased the seeds, enough seedlings from the La Reserva nursery in exchange for the money he spent for the seeds, but imagine in the coming years how many endangered,
hardwood seedlings we will be able to offer to the participants in our forest regeneration program.

Thank you Joe and Wally for your generous contribution to La Reserva. You will be the proud parents of some beautiful trees in the future.

Volunteers_4  

Here are Robin Sky Charles and Steven Ruiz Chavez filling nursery bags to plant all of the new seeds in. They have been volunteering here every Thursday now for the past few weeks. Thank you, Robin and Steven, you are doing a great job and helping the Earth while you are at it.

These are the seedy characters. If only everyone could be as seedy as them. We are expanding the La Reserva nursery and now.....

                                                  LET'S GET PLANTING!!!

July 21, 2007

The Bachelor's Name

   Since today is July 21st and I said that I would announce the name of the Bachelor Monkey on July 20th, now is the time to do so.

  The name Rudy, which is short for Rudolph Valentino, was submitted by Mary Blizzard and is the winner. Since I wrote the article in April, the bachelor monkey has moved to the adjacent forest. Mary came hiking in the La Reserva forest this past June with her sister and brother-in-law, Barb and Jim Linder.  We spotted a pair of monkeys a ways off and could see them quite well with our binoculars. I knew it was the bachelor and here he was with a young female. I know her, as well, because she is one of the only monkeys here with yellow  pigmentation on her left foot and leg. As we watched them foraging a few trees apart, and we were smiling all the time at seeing them together, they moved into the same tree together and began to hug. He must be extremely happy to have a partner and they stayed in that embrace until we all turned around and left.  I have spotted them a couple of other times since and he is now a proud “howling” husband. I will try to get a photo of them together and post on the blog, but will definitely keep everyone posted on their progress.

   Thank you Mary, for submitting the name Rudy, for Rudolph Valentino, because of what we witnessed, he is a lover boy. I’m sorry to Kiwi, who submitted the name Wilbur. This is a great name, as well, but since one of my best friends name is Wilber, I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.

   Please help all of these precious beings to expand and multiply by either donating to the La Reserva Forest Foundation or volunteering your time to help out and.....



                                                            LET'S GET PLANTING!!!

July 11, 2007

The Natural Balance

   Again, I am compelled to post yet another blog in response to the article entitled, “The Coming Biofuels Disaster” by Joe Brewer (www.truthout.org), July 7, 2007. Mr. Brewer, you have spoken the inspiring truth here, and something that I have intuitively known from the beginning of this biofuel craze.

   Sir Richard Branson donated $2 billion last year to help with global warming. I was extremely optimistic about this until I learned that the funds would be used to finance a money making solution, biofuels. This is not the solution as Mr. Brewer explains. The solution to all of our global “problems” (war, global warming, climate change, poverty, etc. etc. etc.) is BALANCE.

   Our collective scale has been out of whack for centuries. Developed nations, and the individuals living in them, are consuming and spewing out unimaginable amounts of resources and filth, respectively, while we in the developing countries suffer from a shortage of quality foods, potable water, poverty, unemployment and extreme inequity in the distribution of wealth. The United States alone consumes over 30 % of the worlds natural resources.

    I propose a solution, the only one that makes sense, although some will disagree. We will never solve anything by attacking and/or judging those who are at the upper end of consumption. This only causes more separation between us, the human race. It is necessary to create an international law mandating that those who consume vast amounts of resources MUST pay a carbon offset tax to BALANCE what they are using, making them carbon neutral, or better yet, carbon negative. These funds would then be given to us in the developing world to restore the tropical forests worldwide. Envision this, the people in the United States having 2 SUV’s per family, air conditioning, boats, motorcycles, not recycling, yet paying us for the privilege to live this type of lifestyle. This will give work to all of us in the Third world, and extremely rewarding work at that. We will be producing potable water, oxygen, and absorbing their carbon emissions to help with the problem of global warming for the entire world.

   How this can be done on a worldwide scale will take a better, more intelligent person that me, but it CAN be done. Please, let’s get this plan started before it is too late. We can help the suffering of millions in the developing nations and the people paying for it will be the ones who are consuming and causing the majority of the inequities and problems.

   Balance the natural scales and 

                                                        LET’S GET PLANTING!!!




July 05, 2007

The Price of Profit

    I’m driven to write this article as a response to a conversation I had with a neighbor/friend recently. So many times I have urged her to plant trees on parts of her farm to help connect small forest islands within and around it. During our conversation she asked if I knew of one certain species of tree. She had read that this particular tree gives off more oxygen and absorbs more CO2 than any other and if one were to plant a full hectare of them, it might pay off, since that person could be paid “good money” in carbon offset payments.

   I use my friend, who I care very much for, only as an example of the multitude of times we run across this mentality in the course of our work. It is understandable, considering humanities conditioning in recent (2000 years +) history, but money is only paper with printing on it. It is useful for buying the things we need through it, but our intention is true wealth. There will always be more money printed, and believe me, there is as much money in the world as will ever be needed.

   Planting one, or even two, species of trees is what we call “tree farming” here at La Reserva. It is a monoculture for PROFIT, because this is the reason they are planted, whether it is for future harvest or carbon sequestering. With this type of activity there is a complete absence of synthesis. All living things depend on a variety of qualities in their lives. They require a varied diet to receive all of their nutrients, as well as varied environments to live in comfort and safety, i.e. a warm shelter in the cold, a fresh, cool environment when hot, trees for protection from torrential rain and a strong barrier (trees again?) to protect them from strong winds. Tree farming does not provide the varied natural habitat for flora and fauna to survive.  How can we ignore the needs of the rest of life on Earth?

   The price of profit is a loss of our freedom and an ignorance of TRUTH. I see TRUTH, which resides within each and every one of us, every day. Surely people must tire of hearing me preach it, yet they never show it. Everyone is always polite, and in agreement with the words, but their actions sometimes show they don’t KNOW.

TRUTHS

•    Now is the time in our history to change our way of thinking about what we do in the world. To do things as stewards of our Earth, for the good of all, not just what will reap personally.
•    By caring and providing unselfishly for all life here, including our living Mother Earth, we shall be cared for. We will all live in abundance for all eternity, here.
•    Sharing and working together, EVEN WITH OUR ENEMIES, to build a beautiful paradise here on our home, Earth. This is the greatest and most powerful road to abundance and good fortune. Forget war, forget our differences and let’s concentrate on our inner similarities.

    The moment we, as a race, forget what is in everything for us personally, we will see such an enormous, positive change in our collective consciousness that we will never return to this outdated way of thinking.

    Recently the U.S. congress approved a $120 billion dollar budget to finance the war in Iraq. With only $6 billion of this “money” we could finance the planting of 20 million hectares of trees around the world, with a minimum of 80 species per hectare, allowing for the absorption of 1 billion tons of CO2 per year and in the process provide habitat and food for the myriad creatures dependant upon them. One fifth of humanity is also dependant on forests for some part of their livelihoods.

   This past year there have been various scandals here in Costa Rica involving our government and private conservation organizations taking funds from foreign governments and mishandling them, in the name of PROFIT. Rather than depositing the funds in an endowment account they deposited them in a high interest earning account, knowing the risks involved, and the bank went belly up. People!! We all lose in this kind of situation. The forests lose for loss of care, in turn the animals, on down the line to the very highest life (us) to the lowliest one celled life, in the name of PROFIT.

   Here, we proclaim, that the La Reserva Forest Foundation will ALWAYS care first for the well being of our Earth and all her inhabitants. We see our reward every day here in the abundant richness of life surrounding our headquarters and within our regenerated and primary forests.

   Mankind is the only species preventing nature from restoration. If left to her own devices she will regenerate within years here in the tropics and with our help in planting trees we can speed up the process. Can we try this alternative way of thinking, for just a while, and see if there is any TRUTH to it?

   Join with us and,


                                                  LET’S GET PLANTING, NOW!!!

June 21, 2007

The Seedling Collectors

                                                                   Seedlingcollectors

From left to right, Tim Johnson, Phil Baker, Michele Glenn, Sharon Baker, Omar Munoz Arguero, Sands and Karen Spencer and Koki (Sandra Shaw and Roger Eichholz's worker after a productive day of collecting. Thank you!!
 



On June 13, 2007, an enthusiastic group of volunteers left from La Reserva at 7 am on a seedling collection foray to the other side of the lake. Two of the volunteers were Karen and Sands Spencer, owners of the property where we would all hunt the baby trees. Karen and Sands came to La Reserva about one month ago to buy some seedlings to plant around their new housing site, and were so impressed with what we are doing that they invited us to come to their larger property of pristine forest and see if we would have any luck finding some different species of trees. They still have approximately 10 hectares of old cattle pastures that they want to restore to indigenous forest, but with 98 forested hectares of primary forest.

The volunteers from La Reserva arrived at the entrance to the Spencer's road to meet with them and they drove a bit further to the forest. It was beautiful and the picking was great. They only had to walk along the edges of the forest and brought home 4 new species. This trip was more of a scouting expedition, finding their way there and getting their bearings, everyone agreeing that they would have to return there as soon as possibe.

In the province of Sao Paulo, Brazil a state law mandates that each reforested hectare must contain a minimum of 80 tree species and each must be represented by a minimum of 12 mother trees from different areas to ensure genetic variability. In the La Reserva nursery we have 60+ species at this time, and this opportunity for a new source of seedlings is very welcome. In the near future we are hoping to be able to provide over 80 species of native trees to landowners regenerating natural forest.

Thank you Sands and Karen, for your generosity in volunteering your beautiful forest as a new source of tree seedlings, with many new species, to the La Reserva crew. Thank you to all of you who showed up last Wednesday to help out. Everyone had a great time and the next day at the La Reserva nursery they,

                                                            

                                                              GOT PLANTING!!                                                       

June 04, 2007

Without You, Where Would We Be?

We certainly wouldn't be writing here on our own website if it weren't for the support that we have received in the past 8 months. This post is just to say thank you and give our gratitude to the people who have helped us to get this far.

Thank you to Michael Crist and Jennifer Cooper of the Global Renewal Foundation for your faith and friendship. You have opened the way for us to do this great work, with your skills at running a foundation and the generous first grant that you donated to us.

Thank you to Ric Wilson at the University of Missouri, Columbia and his students for the beautiful website they designed and put up on the Internet for us.

To Payson and Fran Sheets from Boulder, Colorado, a great big thank you and hug. You were the first ones to help us in the United States and made a special trip here to see what we were up to. You even cried Fran when you saw our work, which was an inspiration to me.

Thank you Sandra Shaw for teaching me how to use a computer and search the Internet in the very beginning. Now, my great advisor here at the Foundation in Costa Rica. The idea was only a small kernel, Sandy, that you let me plant and now we are all watching it grow.

To our old friend David Forester, who has taken the work of managing the website for us as a donation until we begin to get some funding. Thank you, so much, David. We will never forget what you have done.

Thank you to Roger Eichholz for donating the signs and giving us the idea for the seedling nursery.

Thank you to Gary Graham and Michele Glenn for your constant help with all of the organizational work, tours, planting and transportation. You two are unreplaceable.

I go to sleep each night with a big smile on my face just thinking of all of you and what an amazing journey we have embarked on. It is absolutely amazing and I love you all for joining me on this beautiful path. To close, I must thank my 26 year partner, Daniel Walter Spreen Wilson, and also the love of my life. If not for you I wouldn't have even been here. You were the qbsolute answer to my prayers from the first time I saw you.

June 4, 2007
Roberta Ward Smiley
Founder
La Reserva Forest Foundation

Environment Day at La Reserva

Today, June 4th, 2007 was Environment Day, or close to it. We don't have a calendar here that puts those kinds of days in it for us to see, but it's close enough for us. We didn't know that Environment Day was today when we asked for volunteers to come to La Reserva and help us plant the large seedlings from last year, out in 2 small ex-pastures. It just happened that way. Here is a picture of the one ex-pasture before we began to plant this morning:
Fieldbefore

There are a few small, volunteer trees growing up but we will fill up the open areas with the seedlings. That sun is VERY hot.


Volunteersplanting
Here we can see the volunteers Mason Cazzedessus and Gary Graham along with Omar Munoz and Daniel Spreen unloading the wheelbarrow, digging hoses and planting the trees.

Masonplanting_2
This is a close up of Mason. These trees have gotten very large for their small nursery bags. When they are planted out they really take advantage of the new freedom for their roots and grow SUPER fast.

Garyplanting

This is a close up of Gary. He is planting a Poro Machete (Erythrina lanceolata) seedling.

Dogmanplanting
Here is Daniel and our dog Josh. The dogs had a great time, as well. In the trees just to the east of us, only 15 meters away, a large family of Mantled Howler Monkeys were eating and socializing.

Fieldafterplanting
The field after we finished. We ended by ploanting almost 200 trees in about 4 hours. We began to plant the field next to this after lunch, but it was very hot in that sun and everyone had done enough. We will finish it this next Wednesday.

Thank you to Gary Graham and Mason Cazzedessus for showing up today and helping us. We couldn't have done it without you. The monkeys thank you, as well.

Mason ended up taking 2 nice trees home to plant in his yard and 2 Passion Fruit vines.

Now as I write the rain is coming down hard. Thunder is getting closer and all is well for our little trees. All morning we asked for this rain to give these newly transplanted a well deserved drink.

Today, Wednesday June 6th we still had a part of this last old pasture to plant and Becky Enman came to volunteer. Here are the last photos of our Environment Day planting. Thank you Becky for showing up and helping us for these few hours.

Beckyplanting

Becky Enman planting a Cirri seedling. Not as hot today.

Robertasquinting

Me, Roberta, squinting in the bright sun.


Rbeckyandomar

Omar Munoz, Becky Enman and Roberta Ward Smiley finishing this ex-pasture. It only took us 1 1/2 hours to finish today. Yeah!!! Enjoy the new freedom all of you babies.

 

LET'S ALL GET PLANTING!!!

May 18, 2007

Friends of the Forest

Handsplanting This is a list of friends and neighbors in our area who have bought native trees from the La Reserva seedling nursery to plant on their properties.

Many thanks to you all from our furred and feathered friends!!

1.    Doug and Mimi McVey, Arenal…………………………………......  164 trees
2.    Mark and Ginny Walters, Sabalito………………………….……….    30 trees
3.    Ed and Leslie Woods, Rio Piedras…………………………………...   27 trees
4.    Mary and Richard Kelly, San Luis……………………………………    420 trees
5.    Mindy Feldman, Chimurria………………………………....……….     48 trees
6.    Jaime Herod, Quebrada Azul de Parcelas……………………..    127 trees
7.    Irene Lovitz, Aguacate………………………………………………...    100 trees
8.    Judy Reisman, Libano……………………………………...…………..     60 trees
9.     Gloria Dempsey, Arenal…………………………………...………..      33 trees
10.     Don and Teresa Money, Tilaran……………………………………     25 trees
11.     Sandra Shaw and Roger Eichholtz, La Tejona………………    350 trees
12.     Roger Eichholtz, Tilawa lakeside………………………………….    80 trees
13.     Michael Edgson, Tilawa house……………………………...……..    20 trees
14.     Alex Murray, Chimurria……………………………………………....    125 trees
15.     Willeke and Kees Voogd, Tronadora…………………………....     45 trees
16.     David and Betsy Whyte, Tronadora…………………………...…      20 trees
17.     Kurt Lindemuller, Tronadora…………………………………...…      175 trees
18.     Helen Hollenbeck, San Luis…………………………………...…….      48 trees
19.     Dieterik Wolsak, Arenal………………………………………...…….      53 trees
20.     Mike and Marcy Wagner, San Luis………………………………...      20 trees
21.     Stephanie Lombardo, Sabalito……………………………………..       10 trees
22.     Virginia La Mont, Tilawa………………………………………………       12 trees
23.     Richard and Penny Spingarn, Rio Piedra……………………….       96 trees
24.     Sands and Karen Spencer, Arenal………………………………….       38 trees
25.     Doug Ward, La Tejona………………………………………………...      150 trees
26.     Roy and Mary Whaley, Rio Piedras…....…………………………       30 trees
27.     David Merritt, Tilaran…………………………………………………….      13 trees
28.     Doug and Anne Truhlar, Arenal………………………………………      22 trees
29.     Glenn Baines, The Butterfly Conservancy, El Castillo…….       30 trees
30.     Fabiana de Olivera, Lago Coter……………………………………..        8 trees
31.     Steve and Marty Young, Tilawa house…………………………….       33 trees
32.     Melissa Fuller, Chimurria……………………………………………….       74 trees
33.     Wally Razanauskas, Quebrada Grande……………………………        51 trees
34.    David Warner, Arenal…………………………………………………....        20 trees
35.    Joe Silverman, Tilaran…………………………………………………...      160 trees
36.     Ehud & Vatsala Sperliing, Cabanga………………………………..    1017 trees



May 06, 2007

Congratulations

By means of this message let me congratulate the first few donors to La Reserva Forest foundation for their intelligence and foresight, and their committment to regenerating tropical rainforest in Costa Rica.

And because you have chosen Roberta and Dan as your regenerators, you showed how smart you are.

Payson Sheets
Boulder, Colorado

April 27, 2007

The Bachelor Monkey

Yardmonkey1




  May I take this opportunity to introduce myself? My name is Roberta Ward Smiley and along with my husband Daniel Spreen Wilson, we have founded the La Reserva Forest Foundation and lived on this land known as La Reserva for 24 years. I have been posting these blogs up to now, but in the future other members of LRFF will be writing as well.

We have been regenerating forest on the entire 40 hectares (100 acres) of this property since 1998 after exploiting the land for dairy and beef farming for almost 16 years. No one could have imagined how quickly the native flora would fill in to create an abundance of habitat for all the fauna that was struggling to survive. This brings us to the “Bachelor Monkey”, and I’m afraid the story may cause some sadness, even tears, but it needs to be told.

During the farming years, we knew only two family groups of Mantled Howler Monkeys on or around La Reserva. As the forests have expanded so have the monkey families. At intervals we would hear a big ruckus coming from them and we would run out to see what was up with them, always the diligent protectors. We learned that the alpha male in a group would force out a younger, although adult, male by positioning himself between the group and the younger male. He would then encourage the group to move on while he kept the younger male at bay with aggressive behavior. This orphaned or bachelor male will sometimes tag along for years, at a distance, but he is always alone.

During these nine years of natural forest regeneration these two groups have grown into, at least, five groups and now you see how that is accomplished. If that bachelor monkey is enduring he will eventually lure a female from a group to join him and they begin a new family group. Frequently, these bachelors cannot survive alone and perish.

The photo above is of a bachelor monkey who lives in our yard. La Reserva is a forest island. All of the lands surrounding it are housing developments or pasturelands. There is no room left for these monkeys to expand and create more family groups. He has been pushed out of the forest by the dominant groups and must eke out an existence in our yard, seedling nursery and surrounding gardens. He has been living this way for almost one year. We had hopes this past March that he would find a mate because there was a lone female foraging in our front garden for a week. She has since disappeared, presumably into the forest cover, and he is still cruising around alone. We enjoy his company but at the same time feel his despair. Sometimes I cry for him and all of the other Howler Monkeys in the same predicament on neighboring lands. Just last week on our drive to town for groceries we drove under a family of three, father, mother and youngster, crossing the highway on a power line. This is a common sight and the sloth’s do the same thing when there are no trees to use for crossing. If they happen to touch two wires at the same time it’s sure death for them. Again, I cried for that family of three during my next morning’s meditation. During meditation I could see the expression of fear on their little human-like faces, which passed too quickly for me to notice in the car.

I am sorry to tell this story for the sadness that it brings but it must be told to bring about the changes necessary to help all of the living entities so dependant upon our actions. The LRFF is hoping that this year will be the realization of our short-term goal, connecting La Reserva to the large forest just 1 kilometer west, via tree bridges, that our neighbors will plant, if we can provide the funding for them. Please be as generous as possible and help us to help the bachelor monkeys and the other fauna and flora who are trapped in the forest island of La Reserva and at the same time help the world by absorbing carbon dioxide.

We invite everyone reading this to name this bachelor by writing your choice in the comments section below this article. We will announce the winning name on July 20, 2007. In the meantime we will,

Get planting!!!!!

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