Reforestation at Cloudbridge Nature Reserve in Costa Rica: Future

Reforestation at Cloudbridge

Bridging a Costa Rican Cloud Forest

Step 6: The future: More trees to plant.

poro (Erythrina poeppigiana, Poro or Coral Flower

On the Planting page we mentioned planting by estacas, and listed poro (Erythrina poeppigiana) and jocote (Spondias purpurea) as good candidates. We have begun this, and in the second and subsequent years we added more and will continue to do so. We are planting more oaks and laurels, including many saplings gathered from the primary forest on Cloudbridge North. We have grown hundreds in our own nursery. Other lower montane species that we are interested in planting include the canopy trees native to the Talamancas and several local fruit trees, needed by birds and animals. These are listed on our Trees page, which also provides links to identification and natural history guides for each species of tree.

Alnus acuminata -- the fast-growing Alder

We have received a number of inquiries from others wishing to undertake reforestation projects in Costa Rica. Here are some guidelines that we employ and that may prove of interest to others.

1. Naturally, with such a rich variety of trees native to Costa Rica's mountain forests, the first choice is those that have eveolved to thrive in these conditions. Among those we would recommend would be the jaúl (Alnus acuminata) and the tirra (Ulmus mexicana) and yos (Sapium pachystachys) and cedro dulce (Cedrela tonduzii). And the oaks or robles (Quercus – any of the several local species, Q. costaricencis, Q. copeyensis Q. oocarpa, Q, seemannii and Q. rapurahuenis). Some, like A. acuminata, provide the additional benefit of being nitrogen fixing -- they generate a natural fertilizer. We have had success planting the robles (oaks) from acorns in sunny, well drained areas, and we've seen roble do well in partially shaded locations. Jaul, tirra and yos thrive in sunnier spots. Visit us, and you're welcome to take home as many acorns as you can carry.

2. We have planted many fruit trees with agreeable results. They attract birds and insects and monkeys, and make one's surroundings much more lively. Here are some suggestions for fruit trees:
- Aguacatillo (Persea caerulea), the wild avocado, is an essential part of the diet of the bellbird, the endangered quetzal (Pharomachrus mocinno) and other trogons. Quetzals and three-wattled bellbirds (Procnias tricarunculata) are altitudinal migrants and require Lauraceae (members of the laurel family, such as aguacatillo) fruit at different mountain heights for year-round survival. Similarly, aguacatón (Ocotea ira) is species of avocado.
- Dama (Citharexylum donnell-smithii), the juniper berry
- Manzana rosa (Eugenia jambos), rose apple
- Frutilla (Tournefortia volubilis). Even the dead leaves of tournefortia attract certain butterflies.
- Guayaba de montaña (Inga species, wild guava)
- Papayillo (Didymopanax pittieri). A pioneer species, it is seen in disturbed areas of the Talamanca range. Flowering is concentrated in the rainy season and fruiting in the early dry season. Many birds eat the fruit, and insects the flowers.
- Anona (Annona Muricata). Anona or soursop is a perennial, tropical fruit tree with a fruit that looks like a ball with big green spikes.

3. Because of their rapid growth, it seems tempting to plant eucalyptus, cypress (Cupressus lusitanica) and other foreign species -- but we recently revisited South Africa where we saw the damage that exotic species have wrought. In future we would be very careful about introducing alien plants particularly those from other continents. (C. lusitanica is from Mexico, and does not seem to take over pastures, but we have heard that there may be a plan to begin to eradicate it from the Chirripo National Park.) Even Poro (Erythrina) and Llama de Bosque (Spathodea campanulata) are non-native, but our conclusion from reading studies is that they do more good than harm if planted in limited quantities (they will both be shaded out by the maturing forest, eventually.) Sometimes the danger is not apparent for decades. South Africans are now engaged in a nationwide effort to eliminate eucalyptus, which is regarded as providing very little habitat or food for wildlife and whose roots deprive neighboring plants of water and nutrition. Often a problem is that such exotics have no local predators, so they grow unchecked.

An overview of the Cloudbridge project .

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