Wilson Botanical Garden Las Cruces Biological Station Apdo
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
No. 88, November 2017 Wilson Botanical Garden Las Cruces Biological Station Apdo. 73-8257 San Vito, Coto Brus, COSTA RICA Who We Are he Las Cruces Biological an impressive diversity of insects, and in visitor-friendly amenities: comfortable Station is one of three field particular moths and butterflies. private sleeping quarters, excellent meals, T stations owned and operated by Las Cruces protects more than 200 knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff, and a the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) hectares of primary forest (home to some well-maintained network of paths and trails. in Costa Rica. The station was acquired in 2,000 native plant species) and ~150 The nearest town is San Vito, the municipal 1973 and, along with the Wilson Botanical additional hectares that are in various capital of Coto Brus county. It was founded Garden, offers natural history visitors and stages of forest recovery. The reserve by Italian immigrants in the 1950’s and to researchers alike an extraordinary place to is surrounded by a mosaic of mixed-use this day they have a strong presence in the visit and conduct research. agricultural fields and forest patches, and community. For example, a Dante Alighieri Far from the noise and bustle of the it is this fragmented setting that makes Italian-Costa Rican Community Center country’s capital city San José, Las Cruces Las Cruces an ideal place to study the provides Italian language instruction and is located in the remote southeastern effects of forest fragmentation and isolation Coto Brus is the only county in Costa Rica corner of the country between Corcovado on animal and plant communities. The where Italian forms part of the elementary National Park on the Osa Peninsula, and landscape surrounding Las Cruces is also curriculum! But enough said here! We the enormous La Amistad International ideally suited for research on biological hope that you will be inspired to come and Biosphere Reserve (472,000 hectares) that corridors and restoration ecology; key experience firsthand the splendid tropical spans south-central Costa Rica and western fields of research that are of ever increasing diversity of the Las Cruces Biological Panama. In 1983, UNESCO declared Las importance. Part of our mission at Las Station and Wilson Botanical Garden! Cruces and the Wilson Botanical Garden Cruces is to continue to purchase land for Please visit the Las Cruces website at part of the Biosphere Reserve due to its reforestation and, in doing so, expand our http://www.tropicalstudies.org/lascruces incredible diversity and proximity to La protected areas and connect some of the for more information or contact us directly Amistad. isolated forest fragments around the station. by email at [email protected] or The Wilson Botanical Garden, founded For further information on this campaign telephone at: +506 2773-4004. Postal mail in 1962 by Catherine and Robert Wilson, please visit the Las Cruces website. can be sent to: Estación Biológica Las is arguably the most important botanical At approximately 1,200 meters elevation Cruces/Jardín Botánico Wilson; Apdo. 73- garden in Central America and a “must (3,900 feet), the prevailing temperatures 8257; San Vito de Coto Brus, Puntarenas; see” stop on the itineraries of plant lovers, at Las Cruces are cooler than one might Costa Rica. birders, and other natural history groups. It expect. Temperatures range from 21-26 Reservations can also be made by is famous for its worldwide collection of °C (70-80 °F) during the day and 15-21 °C contacting the OTS office in San José tropical plants that include palms, aroids, (low 60’s) at night. Mean annual rainfall is by email: threepaths.reservaciones@ bromeliads, gingers, marantas, heliconias, ~4,000 mm (157 inches)! The dry season tropicalstudies.org or by telephone +506 and ferns. More than 3,000 exotic species runs from January – March, and the rainy 2524-0607. of plants can be found in the 10-hectare (~ season from May – November. Most The North American OTS office is 25-acre) garden, including one of the largest visitors and researchers come during the dry located at Duke University, telephone: collections of palms in the world. season. +1 (919) 684-5774 or email: ots@ There is an incredible diversity of The station is well known for its tropicalstudies.org animals that inhabit the Las Cruces reserve, and the forest fragments in the immediate surrounding area. The bird list The Organization for Tropical Studies is a nonprofit consortium of universities and has registered 410 species; close to half research institutions in the U.S., Costa Rica, Peru, Mexico, South Africa, and Australia. the number of birds found in all of Costa Founded in 1963, OTS is dedicated to providing leadership in education, research Rica. There are also more than 100 species and the responsible use of natural resources in the tropics. To this end, OTS offers of mammals, of which 60 are bats. Some graduate, undergraduate and professional education, facilitates research, participates in of the more commonly sighted mammals conservation activities, conducts environmental education programs and maintains three include agoutis, white-faced capuchin fields stations in Costa Rica: La Selva Biological Station in the Atlantic lowland rain monkeys, kinkajous, olingos, and tayras. forest; Palo Verde Biological Station in the Pacific deciduous dry forest; and Las Cruces Reptiles and amphibians also thrive in Biological Station in the premontane cloud forest near the Panamanian border. this moist, cloud-laden habitat and there is 2 Amigos Newsletter Director’s Keys and Notes AMIGOS NEWSLETTER No. 88, Nov. 2017 3 Director’s Keys and A Bit of Coto Brus History Notes Rebecca Cole / [email protected] 4 What’s New at Las ach place has its history and a roads impossible and of the heartbreak Cruces set of characters who played a when the inaccessibility of the region made leading role in bringing about reaching a hospital impossible and no help Research at Las Cruces E 6 the realities we experience today. It seemed could come from outside. At the same time, The Wonderful World of appropriate in this edition to remember a bit he describes the breathtaking intricacy and Insects of the history of our spectacular region and beauty of the land, the forces that led to the context for some of the challenges and the transformation of a wilderness into a 8 Piecing the Puzzle opportunities of the present. rural landscape, and the realization of the Together This region, once known as the South consequences that came with those changes. Frontier, occupies the rugged land at the Darryl Cole’s life in the early decades 10 Flora and Fauna foot of the Talamanca mountain range and of Coto Brus was marked with enviable Litter Critters extends down the steeply dropping slope to adventure. As a writer, he penned articles the Pacific lowlands. Its history is a relatively about the search for a lost Spanish gold 12 GIS Corner recent one. The development of the South mine, expeditions into little-explored A New Weather Station at Frontier was shaped by individuals whose mountain regions, and harrowing journeys Las Alturas lives spanned a time of exceptional change, along muddy forest trails to bring horses no more so than for the first settlers, or and livestock to the new farm. The farm he 12 De La Comunidad pioneers, who came here in the early days started with his family was call Finca Loma Open House Day and when Coto Brus was a remote wilderness New Project at Las Cruces and whose actions moved it into the modern era. One of these individuals was a young 14 Our Donors North American who, along with others A Year at Las Cruces seeking a chance to do something unique in the world, came to the new frontier to start a life. In 1953, Darryl Cole moved to the region that would become Coto Brus, started a farm on a remote piece of land and spent the next 64 years of his life helping to shape the future of the region. The early days of the settlement of Coto Brus were marked by both exceptional Front Cover: The new spring-fed promise and struggle. Like most ponds and garden at the forest edge frontiers, there was a culture of in the Wilson Botanical Garden. abundance – that is, a perception Photo: Greg Nace. of unlimited land and natural resources. There was also the sharp- Back Cover: Our environmental edged reality of carving out a living education program working with in a remote wilderness. In his book, local school children to plant a new A Place in the Rainforest, describing schoolyard garden. Photo: Carla the settlement of Coto Brus, Darryl Cole Azofeifa captures these elements. He describes the grueling poverty of the landless people who Editorial Committee: Leslee came to the frontier, the intense isolation Schmitt, Rebecca Cole & Rodolfo of a seemingly endless forest overhead, the Darryl Cole (1934 - 2017), one of the Quiros. ceaseless rain that made travel along muddy first pioneers of the Coto Brus region. Amigos Newsletter 3 What’s New at Las Cruces? Linda. Unlike most landowners at from the perspective of a pioneer New Spring-Fed Ponds in the the time, he cleared only the forest who had a hand in transforming necessary to make way for crops and a rainforest frontier and intensely Wilson Botanical Garden houses. The primary forest remaining lived those realities, choices and Greg Nace / [email protected] there, some of the most intact in outcomes. It was an early draft of the region, is the result of hard- a chapter published years later in won battles against the policies and his book. One paragraph caught my practices of the time.