Roberta's Forest Blog — Let's Get Planting

Crested Guan in the Corteza Amarillo tree

Navidad at La Reserva was beautiful. The weather was warm, dry and still. Every year we have an open house here on the 24th and 25th of December. This time over 32 people came to eat tamales, drink some beers, coffee or soda pop. There was a surprise this year, though.

Ross Nicholson reeling them in

Our good friend, Ross Nicholson, called on the morning of December 23rd to ask for help. He and his daughter, Mallory, were 5 miles out to sea on a fishing boat and they had already caught over 20 lbs. of Dorado (Mahi-Mahi or Dolphin). Ross said, “Roberta, do you have a barbecue so that we can cook up all of this fish at La Reserva for the visitors on the 24th and 25th? It sounded like a great idea but we don’t own a barbecue. Then a light bulb went off in my head and I remembered that our great friend and neighbor, Mary Blizzard, used to have a barbecue. We found it in her garage and were in business. Ross came by later in the day and brought even caught more fish. He gave me the recipe for marinating it so that it would be ready for the “barby” the next day. Everyone, except us vegetarians, enjoyed the thick slabs of fish. All of the critters were gathered around the cooker for two days straight. Thank you Ross and Mal for making this year’s open house a HUGE success.

The Dancing Lady orchid (Oncidium excavatum)

The orchid above was spotted high up in the crown of a large tree. We've never seen it before. The second week of the New Year the maintenance crew went to all of the reforested properties (3 of Niko Panna’s, Tronadora High School, Kiki Corridor and David Alvarez’s new corridor) for the tri-monthly tree maintenance. Everybody is growing well. What surprised them most is all of the volunteer baby trees that have sprung up without cows or weed whacking going on. At the Niko Panna property in Paraiso, near the Pacific beach of Playa Junquillal, many of these new volunteers are already over a meter and a half tall. It’s absolutely amazing.

New project paperwork

In January we finally made it out to Playa Ostional, the national Olive Ridley Turtle refuge, to look at a new existing, forest project we will be posting on the Global Giving website. The owner of the property, Wendy Cruz, has vowed that these 19 hectares of native, moist, tropical forest will be conserved, but she needs our help.

Wendy’s Lora Hills forest property at Playa Ostional

This is a vital patch of forest because it stretches down to the beach that constitutes the Olive Turtle’s refuge. These areas of forest adjacent to the ocean are considered biological corridors. They provide food and habitat for the littoral inhabitants, turtles for one. Look for this project soon on Global Giving.

Two-toed Sloth mother with baby

This is the best picture Daniel got of the mother and baby sloth that were in the big Fig tree near the entrance to La Reserva. She is lying on her back in the crook of the tree and the color of her hair is grayish. The baby is on her front, with reddish brown hair. One day I saw them about 2 meters apart in the same tree, hanging by two legs and scratching themselves in unison. Another day they were foraging on the Yos tree’s fresh, new growth. So beautiful!

Papa Loco, in all his glory

This new pic of Papa Loco, the 300-year-old Ceiba tree, was taken by Daniel for promoting the Project Hometree concept. Below is a view of the crown during the dormant period. From far off the spread of his branches still won’t fit in the frame of the photo.

Papa Loco’s crown just before budding out

Miniature unknown orchid

This new orchid has been blooming on the Guayaba (Guava) tree within the La Reserva forest, along the trail.

The greatest Arenal Volcano photo, eh

On January 22nd our friends, Rusty and Nancy Holzheimer, took us on a visit to Rancho Margot (http://www.ranchomargot.org/). It is a self-sustaining community farm, a truly amazing place. It is on the far southeastern shore of Lake Arenal near El Castillo. The views of the volcano on this clear day, well, check it out.

putting Burger Kings throughout Europe in the old days and then……the light bulb went off in his head. This is the complete opposite end of his former work. They have over 1 hectare of organic gardens, heat all of their water with an ingenious system using compost, 500 chickens, cows and pigs with all of the waste being biologically filtered. At the end it is as clear as the clearest stream. Plus, there are volunteer dormitories, housing up to 40 individuals, luxurious cabins for nightly rentals, excellent restaurant with bar and all of this is off the grid. Juan shows the newer waterwheel that produces 10 times as much as the previous one. He explains that they are always changing everything as they learn what works and what doesn’t.

Kingfisher on a wire near Rancho Margot

Little Sparrow on wooden planks, Rancho Margot

The property is 400 acres including primary forests. This month they will begin work on the first private home in the community. The buyer can “work off” half of the sale price by volunteering for the commune.

Purple flower with the pollen visible

Everything at Rancho Margot is bursting with life. After the tour of the farm we ate lunch in the restaurant. The food was tasty and all grown right there on the farm. An unforgettable experience. Thank you to Juan for an inspirational visit.

LRFF has been chosen by the Service Leadership course at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California to participate in this semester’s program. The Compass Consulting team is made up of four students in their final year, Kristina (Misty) Adams, Cindy Tran, Amory de Roulet and Ryan Liu. They work with a non-profit to figure out a business problem or proposal. We were recommended to the school by our friend, Paul Hynek, Director of Business Affairs at Giant Studios, who in these past months has been a great help to us. Last Monday night we had our orientation meeting via teleconference on Skype. The students were in Paul’s office in Los Angeles and there were ten of us here at La Reserva.

We are honored to be working with these bright people. It will be interesting to see what ideas they have for us over the course of this semester. I will keep you informed as this story unfolds.

Please be sure to check out the current projects we have posted at Global Giving. Send the links to your friends and family members. We really need to get these funded so that we can plant them when the rainy season begins in June.

http://www.globalgiving.com/projects/getting-connected-at-finca-salvaje-...

http://www.globalgiving.com/projects/project-hometree-costa-rica/

http://www.globalgiving.com/projects/help-la-reserva-grow-forests-costa-...

Purple orchid in El Castillo

Let’s all get together as one harmonious being. We are the connection between heaven and Earth. We all have our part, in one way or another, in healing our Earth. If you aren’t sure what your part is let’s all get together and…..

GET PLANTING!!!