The Green Advantage

Invest in your future, then invest in your world.^TM

FORESTATION FORUM GROWING It' easy to join in, or you can just read what interests you. Our discussion forum is for anyone with input or questions about reforestation-related topics. Click here and go take a look.

WOOD MARKET NEWS

The photos show young teak from a nearby farm that we’re harvesting and processing to build a house on Finca Leola’s La Garita farm. Even though the trees were never tended, this wood is still useful. And it's beautiful! Everyone who visits has to touch the square posts. We're also processing teak thinnings to fill an order for flooring to be used in Costa Rica. Teak is coming into use for ceilings here as well, and these smaller trees are suitable. We are investigating using teak thinnings for decking in northern climates as well as in Costa Rica. When people think of a teak deck, they think astronomical cost, but the price of making a deck out of younger teak would not be that much more than making one out of pressure-treated lumber. If even lower-grade teak thinnings are marketable now, then well-maintained teak like ours will be in great demand when the first trees need to be harvested in a few years. The photo shows a worker cleaning weeds from around young teak trees.We sold out of teak last year, so this year's planting will be larger, and every year we'll plant a few new species. We're getting requests from furniture and instrument makers for all types of interesting Costa Rican hardwoods.

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BRING BACK THE GREAT GREEN MACAW

We’ll plant plenty of almendro this year, which will make the great green macaws, or lapa verde (Ara ambigua), very happy. It’s their nesting and food tree, and its extensive use in construction has almost driven the birds to extinction. We have one of the few nesting pairs in our area on Finca Leola’s original farm, La Garita (photo at right). Although it's a wonderful construction wood and very beautiful, the cutting of almendro is now prohibited in a large section of Costa Rica, so the ones we plant for harvest will increase rapidly in value. Not all will be harvested—we’ll plant a significant amount in protected zones and leave them permanently for the lapa verde. The photo is of an almendro growing on our Monte Cristo farm that we estimate to be 2 to 3 years old.The almendro that we plant for harvest will become available for purchase about the end of 2005.

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Our photo gallery has more beautiful Costa Rica scenery.

Because we’re trying to expand the forest areas on our farms, we’re looking for volunteers to catalog the species of flora and fauna we already have. That way, we’ll have a baseline so we’ll know how much of an impact we make. Our newly acquired Monte Cristo farm is located within one of Costa Rica’s 15 biological corridor projects, the Route of the Malekus Biological Corridor, which is named after the local indigenous tribe and is a part of the effort to connect a series of biological corridors all the way through Central America. Monte Cristo has even more jungle and more abundant wildlife than the first farm (all the photos in this article were taken there). This farm will be planted with native tree species that are good for both wood and wildlife habitat, so the area could change rapidly. If you’re interested in coming to Costa Rica help us count what’s there, please click here to contact us.

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$700 FOR A HUNDRED TREES??

People seem to find it hard to believe that we accumulate your tree purchases over the years to apply a discount as though you had bought them all at once (adjusted for any intervening price increase). But we find that it encourages people to get started and to keep buying trees.

Here's how it breaks down for 2005 prices.

There's still an advantage to buying larger quantities at one time — the trees you own are will be older, and you buy at today's price.

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ANOTHER GREAT STORY

Christina Ramirez has joined our office staff. Working from our main office, she is our cultural liaison and ecology specialist, and she responds to inquiries about owning trees with us. Read the new story Christina wrote for the Life in the Campo series, another Gringa in the Midst story called “Getting Around in the Campo.”