REFORESTATION at the Centro De Educación Creativa

REFORESTATION at the Centro de Educación Creativa

Student Reflections and Recommendations

10th Grade Environmental Education 2012 - 2013

Table of Contents

10th Grade Class: 2012-2013……………………………………………………………………………………………3

Introduction to Reforestation at the C.E.C. From Deforestation to Reforestation……………………………………………………………………4 Monitoring of the C.E.C. Reforestation Plots………………………………………………………….5

Student Recommendations……………………………………………………………………………………………..6

Student Reflections about the Reforestation Project The Example of the C.E.C. – Alejandra……………………………………………………………………9 Going Out with a BANG! – Chloe…………………………………………………………………………10 Let’s Do Something for the C.E.C. – Danny…………………………………………………………..11 The Culture of the C.E.C. – Diego………………………………………………………………………….13 The School Together as a Family – Eduardo..…………………………………………………….14 A Little Lung in Monteverde – José Andrés…………………………………………………………..16 Working Together for Our Future – Lucrecia……………………………………………………….18 Forest for a Future – Maileth………………………………………………………………………………19 Watching the World Grow – Malachai…………………………………………………………………21 An Eternal Reflection – Sean……………………………………………………………………………….22 The Restoration of Nature – Steven……………………………………………………………………..23 Time to Give Back – Zeb………………………………………………………………………………...……24

Appendix A: Student Monitoring Protocol…………………………………………………………………..….25

Appendix B: Preliminary Project Results………………………………………………………………………..27

*Photo on cover is of a blue-crowned motmot, a seed disperser in the cloud forest

“Never doubt that

a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens

can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

-Margaret Mead

10th Grade Class

2012-2013

From left to right: Lucrecia, Alejandra, Sean, Malachai, Danny, Steven, José Andrés, Maileth, Eduardo, Zeb, Diego, Chloe

From Deforestation to Reforestation

Information provided by Patricia Townsend and Lisa Lamb

Deforestation in Costa Rica In Costa Rica, 50-90% of the original tropical forests were cleared from the 1950s-1980s, mostly for cattle pastures to provide cheap beef for fast food chains. Many of these pastures were abandoned after soil degradation or falling international prices for beef. These land use changes have had significant negative impacts on many local communities because forest plant species provide timber, medicine, food, and other ecosystem services. Widespread soil erosion, habitat destruction, and biodiversity loss led to changes in conservation and forest policies through the Forestry Law of 1996, which restricts forest clearing, introduced a Payment for Environmental Services (Pago por Servicios Ambientales) program, and promotes sustainable forest management. Although some of the abandoned pastures will naturally develop into forest, this process can take hundreds of years and is unlikely in many locations because of the deforestation and loss of nutrients in soils. Invasive exotic grasses were usually planted for livestock grazing, and even when pastures are abandoned, a variety of abiotic and biotic conditions can make it hard for native forest species to start growing again.

Reforestation in Monteverde The incredible biodiversity of Monteverde includes many endemic species of birds, amphibians, trees, and epiphytes. The forests of in the region are highly fragmented. Forest regeneration is critical to increase habitat, create connectivity, and preserve biodiversity. In Monteverde, reforestation projects have planted almost a million trees during the past 20 years. Starting in the late 1980’s the Monteverde Conservation League directed the planting of more than half a million native and non-native trees to create windbreaks, which protect crops and provide habitat corridors. In the early 1990’s the League planted trees in ¼ hectare areas around springs to protect water quality.

Reforestation at the C.E.C. Much of the C.E.C.’s property was used as cattle pasture until the land was purchased in 1992. Since then, the former pastures have been abandoned. Part of the school’s charter is to restore the former pasture into forest. In the past ten years, both the C.E.C. and the Costa Rican Conservation Foundation have planted thousands of trees to reforest abandoned pastures and restore biodiversity. In 2001, a land manager was hired at the C.E.C., and since then, students have germinated over a thousand tree seeds each year and planted many tree seedlings. At the start of the annual rainy season, small sections of pasture are cleared of grass to bare ground to prepare for planting. Tree seedlings are planted in rows. The process, however, is slow and expensive and unless tree seedlings are weeded monthly, they are often choked out by a non-native grass, African star grass. Because of poor records it is hard to say exactly how many trees have been planted. There are data on the number of trees planted, but not on the number of trees that died, which were often replaced with another tree. This also makes it difficult to know when a given tree was planted. The approach has been one of trial and error to determine which species do best in the pasture conditions.

Monitoring of the Reforestation Plots

Information provided by Patricia Townsend and Lisa Lamb

Data Collection from the C.E.C. Reforestation Plots For restoration to be successful, we need to know what works and what may be most appropriate given the existing environmental conditions. Documenting the outcomes of reforestation over the long term and starting large-scale monitoring is critical to understanding the effectiveness and process of restoration and recording tree growth. By having data on differing restoration approaches, we can make reforestation more effective and have a long-lasting contribution to regional biodiversity conservation. In 2009, the C.E.C. and Patricia Townsend began a monitoring program that involved the high school students. One goal of the project was to assess the effectiveness of two restoration strategies – one with a mixture of native species and one with predominantly one species of guaba, the Inga punctata. Each monitoring plot is 5m x 10m. There are five Inga plots and five Mixed plots for a total of ten permanent monitoring plots. Each plot contains two permanent 1m x 1m subplots for ground cover and vegetation monitoring. For five years, data has been collected on tree size, tree seedlings, ground cover and vegetation diversity. All of the trees have been permanently tagged, numbered, and identified so that their heights, crown diameters, and diameter at breast height can be recorded and tracked from year to year. In each plot, there are two small subplots where the vegetation structure and percentage of native and non-native plants were assessed.

Citizen Science and Student Involvement Citizen organized tree planting programs are popular worldwide, but little work has been done to evaluate the success of these programs at restoring functioning ecosystems and biodiversity. One of the goals of this project was to assess the reliability of student-collected data. Each year, two sets of data are collected from the ten reforestation plots. Researcher collected data is compared with data collected by high school students. Results have shown that students are more reliable at taking certain types of data than others (Appendix B: Figures 3 & 4). Having students involved in data collection not only engages them in the scientific process, but also enables them to see and evaluate why they have been reforesting and the result of the planting work. Students learn to identify native and non-native plants, to use tree measuring techniques, and the importance of precision in data collection.

Preliminary Results about Reforestation Strategies The results from the first year show that plots with the high density of Inga trees are more effective at beginning to restore the forest ecosystem. Fast growing Inga trees are larger and cast more shade than the slower growing trees in the mixed species plots (Appendix B: Figure 1). As a result, the non-native grass is disappearing in the plots with the high density of Inga trees and native tree seedlings are starting to grow more (Appendix B: Figure 2). Reforestation efforts are making a difference. Natural regeneration in the surrounding pasture where trees have not been planted is still extremely slow. Continued monitoring is needed throughout the region to document tree survival and growth to track how climate change is impacting reforestation efforts.

Student Recommendations for the C.E.C.

Reforestation Monitoring Project

This is a categorized summary of student suggestions for moving forward with our reforestation project at the C.E.C.

There are five categories:

1) Widen our scope by becoming a model for the world

2) Increase community involvement

3) Organize existing data

4) Expand the planting effort

5) Preserve & expand the role of the project in the Environmental Education

curriculum

Each section contains a brief synthesis of student thoughts on the matter, and excerpts from written student reflections.

"The best way to let this beauty shine is

a mix of patience and goodwill."

-Malachai

1. WIDEN OUR SCOPE BY BECOMING A MODEL FOR THE WORLD

Our students recognize the potential our project has to be adopted by other schools and communities worldwide. Through persistence, organization and networking, we can make our project a replicable example for others. The sense of global connectedness this would foster would greatly benefit students and teachers alike.

“If the school makes a page on the internet with pictures and information about what are we doing and how to do it, it can have a very big impact on the rest of the world. Other schools in Costa Rica and in other countries can make a reforestation projects like ours and help the planet.” -ALE “...make the rest of the world realize how different the world could be if we would take better care of our planet.” -CHLOE “We can connect with other schools which are replanting trees and share ideas and different ways to restore their schools.” -MALACHAI “... give the tools to student to work on the project, but also the control to them of working on the project. We can deliver responsibilities to each of them and give them the chance to make the difference our world has to look for.” -MAILETH

2. INCREASE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

Our students see the need to reach out to our community to build relationships with experts and citizens who can assist us, to raise money for materials, and to educate and involve those who our efforts most directly affect.

“We should simply keep up the effort to reforest, find an expert on the subject, and spread our skills not only in the CEC, but expand to other places. We can use more students and raise awareness to more students on how important it is to reforest. I think we should just keep the project going and then work on improving it.” -ZEB “...the CEC should try to involve more of the Monteverde community and let them know what we are doing.” -LUCRE “...it would be nice for the CEC students to visit schools from our community.” -LUCRE

3. ORGANIZE AND MAKE EXISTING DATA MORE ACCESSIBLE

Our students would like to establish an effective way to organize and make available all of the data we have collected in the last five years. This data can be used in many ways, and the sooner it is organized the less likely it is that it will go unused.

“...a physical database that makes data more accessible and easy to find.” –JOSÉ ANDRÉS

4. EXPAND THE PLANTING EFFORT

Our students agree that we are at a point where plans for expanding the project on campus can begin. After five years of research, new planting techniques can be developed based on what we have learned so far. In this way we can contribute towards establishing best practices for reforestation in our region. Beyond this, continuing to actively plant trees fulfills our responsibilities as per our land easement and is fully in line with the philosophy at the C.E.C.

“The way that the students can help here at school with this project is starting from 1st grade to 11th grade. They can all help with planting. The suggestion that I have is that all kids at school help with this project. From 1st to 4th grade, the students will go around and collect specific types of seeds and then they germinate these seeds. They will take care of them until these seeds grow into plants or trees. Then, from 5th to 11th grades, there will be one reforestation plot for each grade. These grades will plant a plot with the trees that the 1st through 4th graders planted. Each grade level is in charge of a specific reforestation plot. “ - EDUARDO “What we should do to continue this project is that we should reforest more areas, and this time, teach the middle school kids how to take the data. We could reforest the whole hill below the colegio classes.” -SEAN

5. PRESERVE AND EXPAND THE ROLE OF THE PROJECT IN EE CURRICULUM

Our students feel that it is advisable to continue to tie the project to curriculum in a significant way. This will help to ensure that both teachers and students make the project a priority and take advantage of the many opportunities it affords. We should also expand the project to include more grade levels. In this way we can increase awareness of the project, increase the expertise of our students as citizen scientists, and develop new ways to use the project educationally.

“...and involve all grades, not just tenth or eleventh grade. They need to go to the plots and collect new data each year because the plants and trees change every year. The students will be involved in the reforestation project with the student monitoring program in order to learn about different reforestation strategies.” -STEVEN “This project should continue but with the involvement of the high school community. This is so that even when the older students are gone there will be the younger kids to do it.” -MAILETH “To make this project better I think that is good to involve more students, do the data collection project more often, and train teachers so that they learn and know about the reforestation.” -JOSE ANDRES “I think all grades at the CEC should be taught about the reforestation plots because honestly I never knew that they existed until this year. This data collection is extremely important because it can be applied to most of the country and it can help to save our endangered animals and plants.” -CHLOE “If the institution would like, I think that our class could volunteer to show the other grades how to do the work in the reforestation plots.” -DANNY “Also, I think this should still be a graded project, so that there will be no fooling around and students will record accurate data.” -DIEGO

One of the reforestation plots (2013)

The Example of the C.E.C.

by Alejandra

A lot of people say that no one is doing anything to help. However, there are many people who are restoring ecosystems around the world. Restoration is the process of helping a damaged ecosystem to recover. The goal of restoration is to create an ecosystem that supports and recovers from any disaster. People all around the world want to reforest for preventing and reducing erosion and also to reduce the levels of CO2 that is in the atmosphere. A long time ago the earth was completely covered with forest. People want to bring the forests back to how they were before. I think that the most effective way to restore a deforested habitat is to plant more native trees, or plant trees that are going to grow in the area and are able to grow quickly. If the community of Monteverde restores the forests, I think we should do it with a historical reference point. We can make the deforested areas how they were before with forests. Maybe if we restore this way and also consider resilience, animal species that went away because there wasn´t enough food can come back to Monteverde. Resilience is to be able to survive no matter what happens. This is important in nature, because a forest can´t survive with just one species of tree. An ecosystem needs a variety of plants and trees and also animals in order to survive. One person can´t restore an entire forest on their own; they need more people. Both human communities and ecosystems need to be resilient.

Here at the CEC School, we are reforesting our forest in order to bring back the diversity of plants and animals we had some years ago. In order to have a better result, we are planting Inga trees to reduce the African Star Grass, a type of invasive species. This type of grass affects native tree health and growth. Inga trees are a species that can better tolerate and respond to the impacts of the Star Grass. Monitoring and data collection is important to see the different stages of growth in each type of tree in the forest and to see if Star Grass is affecting them. At the school, we have 10 plots, each one with 2 subplots. We took data on what percentage of plants in each subplot was herbaceous, invasive Star Grass, leaf litter and seedlings. We did it with a quadrat that had 16 squares and we divided each square in 100%. I learned that Inga trees are a very efficient tree species to have in the forest especially because this school was a farm, and it had a lot a Star Grass. Inga trees grow quickly and have a wide canopy which makes a lot of shade and helps to make the Star Grass disappear more quickly.

I think the CEC School should to continue with this project as part of the EE class. The students of the school can go and plant more native trees and Inga trees in the plots. The Plot Project can be part of the 9th and 10th grade classes. It would be better if we did it more than once a year. We can do it 2 or 3 times a year to see during which time of the year the trees are healthier and growing more. To improve the reforestation areas and the plots we have to plant more trees because some of them are broken and are falling apart. If the school makes a page on the internet with pictures and information about what are we doing and how to do it, it can have a very big impact on the rest of the world. Other schools in Costa Rica and in other countries can make a reforestation projects like ours and help the planet.

by Alejandra Going Out With a BANG!

by Chloe

Reforestation is the process in which people plant trees and plants to help with the restoration of a natural ecosystem that has been damaged or destroyed. Many people don’t care about the ecosystem or are just uneducated about it and its effects on the rest of the planet and life all over the world. I think one of the most effective ways to help with deforestation is to eliminate the source of deforestation (logging, mining, palm oil plantations). We can start planting trees in these places to help restore the animal life that was affected by the deforestation. Also, to monitor to these places to see the growth or failure of the species planted in each plot.

Students at the CEC have been studying our plots and taking data for Patricia for about 5 years. The monitoring we did here was important because Patricia was writing an article using this data. This year my class helped measure DBH (diameter at breast height) for large and small trees, measure the canopy width, and took pictures or sketched pictures of unknown species we found in each plot.

Since this is the last year doing these plots with Patricia’s help, I think our school should start saving money so that even after we don’t have Patricia and her helpers we will have the money to continue this important research. I think all grades at the CEC should be taught about the reforestation plots because honestly I never knew that they existed until this year. This data collection is extremely important because it can be applied to most of the country and it can help to save our endangered animals and plants. Our research is not relevant to the rest of the world except for maybe being inspirational and hopefully enough to make the rest of the world realize how different the world could be if we would take better care of our planet.

Students collecting data from reforestation plot in 2010

by Alejandra Let’s Do Something for the C.E.C.

by Danny

When people that decided to buy this land, one of the first projects that they decided to do was to reforest all that land that in that time was used for cattle pastures. Here at our school we have been restoring for a long time. We are trying as hard as we can to help the ecosystem that is on our property and we can see that we are doing good work. Basically, restoration is helping land that has been destroyed by humans and cows and to make like this land like it was in the past. Many people who study and love the world are trying to make us understand what will happen without trees. Many things can happen, like erosion, loss of nutrients in the tropical rain forest, and higher levels of CO2 in the atmosphere that will make the world warmer. With climate change, the glaciers will melt and our province will be under the sea.

It is different to help ecosystems that have been destroyed by different ways. For example, if the ecosystem was burned, it is not too hard to restore, but if you have a land that was deforested and has buildings on it, it is almost impossible to restore that zone. However, from our reforestation plots at school, we have learned that the best thing here is to plant Inga trees. They help a lot to kill invasive species and protect the little trees that are growing. Once, I saw a picture that made me think about how we want to see our open lands covered like the rest of the forest that we had since the beginning. When we reforest, we can plant trees that are powerful enough to survive after any natural disaster, so that the restored ecosystem is really resilient. The word I just used will enrich your dictionary of words. Resilience refers to how fast an organism, whether it is a plant, human and animals, or an ecosystem or community, can bounce back from natural disasters.

Milton looking at a tree in a reforestation plot

We, the students of the Cloud Forest School, plant trees for many reasons. I remember that Milton told me that the main reason is to prevent erosion. Forests also provide many other benefits, such as timber, medicine, food and many other things. Another reason is that if we leave the deforested land as it is, it will take hundreds of years for the forest to be what it was in the past. What we can do is to help the process to be faster. Why is collecting data important? With data

11 collection you can measure a lot of things like DBH, canopy width, and other measurements. These can help us to see many things, like how much the trees are growing from one year to another. We can also see how much the African star grass, an invasive species, has been killed by the shade of the Inga trees. We were divided into groups and my group was the one that looked in the subplots for the percentage of herbaceous, grass, leaf litter, and seedlings. Each section of the subplot had to add to 100%. The first time was a little hard, but then it was really easy and we got used to it really fast. The most important thing is that we are able to collect data, notice changes, and learn. We can see that we are planting lots of trees, which is good because our school has a lot of land. We are making a big difference on our land by planting trees.

Collecting data can expensive, but the school can maybe help with the payments of volunteers. It would be better if both parts have equal payments, because they are helping our school with our reforestation efforts. We could maybe get more funding to help our project and so that all of the community is involved. In order for the project to be done all year, we can include more grades and within these sampling times, each month can be divided between the grades so that the data collection will be better and the older grades can help. If the institution would like, I think that our class could volunteer to show the other grades how to do the work in the reforestation plots. We can also plant more trees in the plots and have more methods and technology to measure other biotic factors in the ecosystems.

This reforestation project is really important for us to be able to finish reforesting the open areas that we have on our campus. Our school can be a model for other schools in our community and other institutions around the world. Maybe we can help others with their projects in many different ways. Here we are trying to make a change and one way we are doing this is by helping to reforest our land.

Students collecting data in a reforestation plot in 2012

by Alejandra The Culture of the C.E.C.

by Diego

We, the students of the Cloud Forest School, have a great conviction. This belief we have is called reforestation, but what is reforestation? According to the dictionary, this means “to replant an area with forest cover.” To me, it means to help the Earth by planting trees in deforested areas that were cut down by humans. Without trees and nature, humans and millions of species would lose their home and die due to lack of oxygen. How can we all get together and reforest? The best way to plant trees is to look at successful models such as the CEC reforestation areas and see how our work can be applied to other reforestation projects.

Part of the reason why we plant trees is because this is our culture. We are part of thousands of worldwide cultures and ours is to plant trees. We are trying to fix the mistakes we made when we cut down our mother nature. Without plants and trees we will have less oxygen and knowing the human race, we will probably create devices that help us breath. However, instead of free air, it will be expensive air! It is helpful that we are doing this reforestation project, to learn the ways of our culture, and to see if we are living the reforestation life the correct way, to know if what our “nation” is doing works or not.

The procedures to collect data are simple but it takes a lot of hard work and responsibility. The whole class was assigned to different jobs to check the progress of the reforestation project. I had to do DBH, which mean means diameter at breast height, and canopy width. This consists of seeing how much the tree has grown to the sides and to measure how wide the trunk is. What we learned as a class is that the Inga trees are the more successful trees in providing shade and killing the African Star Grass, a type of invasive species here. Also, in some of the plots, the Inga trees have spread their seedlings which means that more of those trees will grow and will kill more invasive grass.

Why should the CEC make this project an ongoing program? In my opinion, this is an essential part of the EE class and institution due to the fact that not enough research has been done to know how to effectively reforest in the cloud forest and rain forest ecosystems. The CEC is the first institution to create a reliable reforestation plan that can be used worldwide! I think that this project should be a tenth grade project. Also, I think this should still be a graded project, so that there will be no fooling around and students will record accurate data. The only thing I would suggest doing differently in the future is for teachers to give a little bit more time to some of the stations, such as canopy width, since it is more difficult to do. I believe that the leaders of our school will agree that this project needs to keep on living. The future of our home is at risk if we do not keep on investigating and learning. Don’t you agree?

by Alejandra The School Together as a Family

by Eduardo

Restoration? Do you want to know what it is? We practice restoration at the C.E.C. We are restoring some land that used to be pasture for cows. By restoring, we mean that we are planting in areas that humans had cut hall of the trees down. People want to reforest because they want to have more diversity of trees. By having more forest, you have more oxygen and food and shelter for animals. Some people reforest by using a historical reference point, but I think that the goal is to have a forest, so it does not need to be exactly like in the past. It can be something new and even better. Resilience is also important because when a natural disaster happens and it affects the forest, the forest needs to be able to restore itself.

Students here at the C.E.C. do reforestation because we want to restore all of our fields that are filled with grass and make it forest. This restoration project is really good for our school because we are an environmentally-friendly school and this project shows that we want better forests near to us. By collecting data, we learn how to restore an ecosystem so that it has better conditions. We also learn about which species of trees grows faster to be able to kill the invasive species, such as the African star grass. During this reforestation project, I was looking at the plant species diversity by going to each subplot and searching for some species that are new in the subplot. Then I drew them in a book and in this way we were able to find out what type of plant it was.

From this reforestation project we learned that by planting Inga trees with their wide canopy and shade cover, they can kill the African star grass. We also got to know which trees grow faster and how with time, the African star grass has reduced in number. We also learned about how important it is to restore an ecosystem and in this way we help to have a better forest and protect the forests that are nearby.

Since this is the 5th and final year that the reforestation project is led by a scientific researcher, the C.E.C. needs to find a way to keep working with this project. We know the school has lots of trees and those trees produce seeds. We, the students, can go and collect some of those seeds and then germinate them; this way we have the trees to plant in the school. We have some tools at school that we need for measuring and collecting data during the project.

The way that the students can help here at school with this project is starting from 1st grade to 11th grade. They can all help with planting. The suggestion that I have is that all kids at school help with this project. From 1st to 4th grade, the students will go around and collect specific types of seeds and then they germinate these seeds. They will take care of them until these seeds grow into plants or trees. Then, from 5th to 11th grades, there will be one reforestation plot for each grade. These grades will plant a plot with the trees that the 1st through 4th graders planted. Since each class will have a plot, there will be 7 plots in total. Each grade needs to take care of their grade’s plot. They will go and collect the data from their reforestation plot for a year. They can go out in the field for 3 classes every 2 months. When a school year ends and a class moves onto the next grade, they

14 will adopt a new plot from the year before. Each grade level is in charge of a specific reforestation plot. These ideas will reduce the amount of work that only one class will need to do, so that there is a better for way for students to collect data and maintain continuity over the years. Since the 11th graders will have had many years of experience, they can teach the younger grades how to collect data in the plots. The younger students can look up to the 11th graders as a role model.

The whole school can work together to have a really good reforestation project and all the grades will work together. In this way, we will be a school family working together to restore our forest.

One of the C.E.C. reforestation plots (2013)

African star grass, an invasive species

by Alejandra A Little Lung in Monteverde

by José Andrés

I will be talking about different reforestation efforts that have been done in our school. We try to do our best to restore the deforested areas around our school that were cattle pasture in the past. Restoration is helping an ecosystem that has been damaged or destroyed to recover and come back to life. We want an ecosystem that is self-supporting and resilient to shocks. We care a lot about reforestation, but why do we care? Trees are the lungs of the earth. They produce the oxygen we breathe and animals get habitat if we reforest. We could even get new species of animals if we plant more trees. The earth would be more green and beautiful if we reforest. There are several ways to restore a forest, but I personally think that the best way is to reforest and make a resilient forest because, first of all, the forest will be very powerful and resist any and all shocks, and it will restore faster. Also, I think it is not as good to try to get the forest to be as it was before because in the past it might have been good-looking and with big trees but with poor resilience, so the forest could get destroyed very easily by storms or hurricanes. The best is to have a maybe not huge, but healthy and resilient forest. Resilience is the ability of an organism to come back to normal after it has been damaged.

We reforest in this school because our goal is to have a green, healthy school that has air that people around the world would wish to breathe, and has habitat for animals. If animals have habitat and food they will stay in our forest. If we have animals, we can enjoy them every day. That will always be our mission, to have a resilient forest that helps us breathe and we can give thanks back by protecting it. By reforesting we get all kinds of benefits like wind-breakers, protection for crops, and protection for water. Collecting and monitoring data is really important because it shows us how the forest has been evolving, good or bad, and it helps us compare data to see the progress over time. I participated in the CEC reforestation program. At the beginning I started doing vegetation structure, but during the middle of the projects the teachers transferred me to the DBH and canopy width group. Results from the reforestation project show that plots with the highest density of Inga trees were more effective to recover the ecosystem at the beginning. Fast growing Inga trees are big and cast more shadow than the other species that grow more slowly and are smaller. Non-native grass is disappearing in the plots that have a high density of Inga trees and native tree seedlings are growing more. Reforestation is making a difference, and although it is slow, we are making a change. We need more monitoring to see the impacts of climate change on reforestation.

I think this reforestation project could be better; information that presents the results of reforestation and monitoring should be built and so that there is a physical database that makes data more accessible and easy to find. More students could be involved if the school created a student monitoring program, that way they can learn a lot about reforestation strategies. In this program, lower grades should also be included to have more students. Students should be more involved in the calculations. I agree with the recommendations of a previous field assistant that permanent plots should be created to monitor the success of the reforestation program. Also, there should be more quadrats so you can have more accurate data. Plots should also be created in not

16 reforested areas to measure the rate of natural restoration. The CEC reforestation project is very important because it is giving us valuable information about reforestation like what species grow better and under what conditions. This doesn’t only help the CEC; it also helps the whole community because the school can share the results they find, so that the information can be taken into account for future reforestation programs. This would also help the world to know more about reforestation. We are creating more and more oxygen for future generations to live.

Students collecting data from the reforestation plots in 2012

2012

by Alejandra Working Together for Our Future

by Lucrecia

Restoration is the process of bringing back an ecosystem to its original state. For me, original state is a land that is virgin, meaning that human beings haven’t done anything to change it. We all, as human beings, should take care of the environment because we want animals to have enough shelter and food to be able to survive and keep helping nature to be magical as it is. When we reforest a land, it is important to think about the weather conditions around the year and the abiotic and biotic elements that may get affected. For example, if you plant trees that grow fast, it will be easier to restore an ecosystem that will help animals, small plants and other organisms. Since the start of the CEC reforestation project, they planted Inga trees that killed the invasive African Star Grass because they grow quickly and provide shade. In this way, native species had more opportunities to grow. In order to restore a land is important to consider resilience, which is the ability to work as a group in order to fix damage that happened to nature.

We all, as a CEC community, want to reforest our campus because we want to fix damages caused to the forest because of cattle pastures. Monitoring by collecting data is important because it helps us know if what we are doing is actually giving results that are improving forest, animals, and campus conditions. It also makes students feel proud about what we are doing and what a big change our work will do for the environment. I was identifying species, along with Eduardo, and it was interesting to contribute our knowledge to help with the project. Identifying species is important because knowing what we have it helps us to know what is be able to survive more easily, and in this way, we can plant more of those specific plants. By doing this project, I learned that collecting data is important because it is data that can be used in the future to make big changes on the environment and animals and it can also change the thinking of human beings in relation to how we reforest land.

I think the school should assign the project to the 10th grade environmental class each year, and that way, most students, like us, will be able to participate. Teachers and school staff should get training to do this kind of project and involve more of the CEC community. I recommend in general for the CEC community to involve more of the students in the development of our environment. Projects like this are a good way to take students out of their classrooms and learn in a different way. To make this project better I think that is good to involve more students, do the data collection project more often, and train teachers so that they learn and know about the reforestation plots as well. Our work at the CEC has contributed a lot to our everyday lives because it helped us look at environmental protection from another perspective. In my opinion, I think that the CEC should try to involve more of the Monteverde community and let them know what we are doing. Also, it would be nice for the CEC students to visit schools from our community, and help them reforest their campuses as we teach the students about the importance of the environment.

by Alejandra Forest for a Future

by Maileth Solis

We understand that ecological restoration is a way in which we will try to recover the ecosystem that was damaged by either us or a natural disaster. For recovering an ecosystem we must reforest, that is, planting trees in the areas in which there are not trees. For many people, the main reason for planting trees is to have a better future, a better life in which we won’t die because of climate change (related to cutting down trees).

Restore a habitat? How? There can be many ways. An effective way is not only planting trees, but also taking care of them. Researching for the trees that will have a higher probability of surviving is important. All of this depends on where you live, your climate conditions, and the animals that live there. You must consider all of this for a successful restoration.

Resilience of a forest is just a fancy word used to describe the higher probabilities of surviving in a refoerestation area. The best way for me to restore a habitat is to increase the resilience of a forest. Basically because it is impossible to go back to the same forest we had; climates have changed and the only way of having the same forest is having the same conditions. Earth has changed as well as the conditions (water, sun, rain, wind).

Why reforest at our school? I have heard this question so many times that I lost count. All of us as students at the Cloud Forest School have learned the importance of having a good ecosystem and the importance of caring for the future, a future in which we can make a difference. It is not an easy job; we have tried and failed so many times. This is when collecting data plays a huge role. Knowing the most effective way of planting trees and where the risk of losing trees is lower is important. This makes the job easier and you can do it in less time.

My class this year had the great opportunity of contributing to a project in which we collected data of trees. It takes a lot of time and effort to have the right data of trees. At the end all the work done was worth it, just knowing that we helped not only our school but other people who start this project (reforesting) will have higher probabilities of a successful forest. It seems easy to just collect data; I can assure you it is hard. To have the right data there are some processes you must follow. From height, to canopy width, diameter of trees… all of these are important and it makes a difference in the ways we reforest the areas in our campus. It shows me why all of this (collecting data) is important and how successful the reforestation areas at our school have been the last 5 years (during the project). My group took the height of trees. This can tell us how much time it takes for the trees to grow.

The collection of data should not stop this year; it must continue. It’s a project that needs time and money. These are probably the reasons why it won’t continue. This should not stop us. We need two things first, the ways to collect the data, how to put it all together, time, and students that will want to do it, and obviously some money (we can look for financial support from our community). This project should continue but with the involvement of the high

19 school community. This is so that even when the older students are gone there will be the younger kids to do it. This will make the project go on every year and it will be more effective. We can divide the different jobs between every class so it takes less time. We can look for economic support from members of the community, make the student community understand the importance of this, give the tools to student to work on the project, but also the control to them of working on the project. We can deliver responsibilities to each of them and give them the chance to make the difference our world has to look for. Sometimes the reforestation project seems like it is not important, but it is. Forests are the “lungs of the earth,” each one, and it does not matter how big or small they are. All of them are part of us in a direct or indirect way. It can bring people together to work for a common goal. That is how helping our forest will make the Monteverde community come together. If we collect this data we will be able to give the other reforestation projects in Monteverde information we learn and help them be successful.

We have become an example for everyone in the world, the goal that the whole world wants to reach and must reach someday.

Students collecting data in the reforestation plots in 2013

by Alejandra Watching the World Grow

by Malachai

The very idea of restoration is to make something healthy again. If we do not restore our forest we will never be able to see the beauty that is right under the surface. If we wish to see something beautiful, we need to replant the trees in desolate areas. The best way to let this beauty shine is a mix of patience and goodwill. We need to first find places in most need such as different areas around the CEC which have been deforested. Afterwards, we take a piece of the forest untouched by deforestation and use it as a model to reforest the area without trees. We plant saplings and support them with strong sticks so that they are more resilient to the strong winds that often blow.

The reason we reforest our already beautiful school is because we want to do our own part in saving the world, one tree at a time. When we collect data we allow other places which are in need of more trees and the best way to do them. If we fail to collect accurate data then the way our 10th grade class does things such as measuring trees will be off and not allow other environmental schools to succeed. Our class was allowed the chance to handle precious gear and to have the pleasure of helping measure the growth of trees which have been growing for more than five years. We have been able to learn that the star grass, an invasive species, is indeed dying out with the Inga trees and the other trees are able to grow.

I believe we should continue monitoring the mixed tree plots to be able to understand what the best method is to use. We as a class should let future generations of 10th graders have the opportunity to acknowledge the need of this school. Instead of solely the 10th graders, we can teach younger students how to reforest and the best conditions for trees. We slowly get deeper into the complexity of reforestation needs and when they hit 10th grade we allow them to go and measure the trees. I think if we were to make a large area free of trees and have younger students plant a tree there and mark it for their own. Then over the years they get to watch as them and their trees grow. We continue this as a tradition until that area is reforested. We then move onto another area in need of trees. Finally, after years those trees will represent the work of many.

This project can help other places in need of more trees. Their trees could have been cut down or killed by other species of trees, but with our information these areas can be revived. We can connect with other schools which are replanting trees and share ideas and different ways to restore their schools. The reason we are important as a school is because we allow other places to use us as a model and compare our growth to theirs. The world can be saved with enough people and we have them; now we need to convince them to care enough to do something about it.

by Alejandra An Eternal Reflection

by Sean

To start off, I’ll give my definition of restoration. It is the process of nursing a damaged ecosystem back to the maturity it once had. I believe people want to reforest because it plays an important role in bringing our worldly focus back on the environment, rather than us humans. I think the best way to restore a deforested area is to bring it back to a mature point, through monitoring and data collection, where all threats are almost obsolete.

To explain why I think students reforest at the CEC, I’m going to mention my title, “An Eternal Reflection.” What I mean by an eternal reflection is that I feel that students want to bring back an eternal forest, a forest that will live as long as we will and longer. Taking data is important because we’re restoring and ecosystem and to do that we need to take data and record the status of the maturing forest. For the reforestation project we have taken data and have been graded on our conduct while doing these activities. What we have learned from the reforestation project is that we have to take a lot of time taking data and monitoring the plots and the route it’s on, but it’s rewarding.

What we should do to continue this project is that we should reforest more areas, and this time, teach the middle school kids how to take the data. We could reforest the whole hill below the colegio classes. I just talked to students this morning on how this school has an environmental background and they agreed we could add more reforestation areas below the colegio. That is a lot of land that spans probably 200 meters and if this school really wants to be the Cloud Forest School, add more of the latter – forest. This whole project is important because it sustains the reputation of this school. I’ve been here for 5 months and all the kids here have a big respect for the environment and I think that is due to the whole Monteverde community and ecotourism in Monteverde. This is important to the rest of the world because Monteverde is a well-known place for restoration of ecosystems and by that this school should continue to back up and support this reputation.

Collecting data in a reforestation plot in 2013

by Alejandra The Restoration of Nature

by Steven

In this project, I will talk about reforestation and the importance of reforestation and a little bit of the history of the reforestation in CEC and Monteverde. Restoration is the process of helping an ecosystem that has been degraded or damaged to recover. Every human wants to reforest because humans need forest to survive. The forests give us a lot of oxygen. They want to protect every species of animals because they want to have different species in their country.

Resilience is the best way to restore a deforested habitat because humans are doing bad things in the forest, like cutting of trees, making buildings, and hunting. They should change and think twice before doing their actions, and change their minds. Resilience means the ability for an organism or group to “bounce back” after a shock or disaster and recover or reorganize in a new situation.

Every student of the CEC wants to reforest because nature is life for humans. They want to save the green places and the animals too. They wish to protect and have different species of animals and plants because they want more biodiversity in the animals and plants. Monitoring and data collection are important because you need to document the tree survival and growth to track how climate change is impacting reforestation efforts and the life cycle of the tree and plants too.

We did a little part of the reforestation project this year that included DBH, canopy width, and tree height. This data was interesting because you can see the differences from 2012 to 2103.

The reforestation monitoring project at the CEC has results that show that the plots with a high density of Inga trees are more effective at beginning to restore the forest ecosystem. The non- native grass is disappearing in the plots with the high density of Inga trees and native tree seedlings are starting to grow more.

The school needs to buy more tools and involve all grades, not just tenth or eleventh grade. They need to go to the plots and collect new data each year because the plants and trees change every year. The students will be involved in the reforestation project with the student monitoring program in order to learn about different reforestation strategies. They need to include more grade levels in the monitoring program.

My suggestion for the other students is to do this project and be precise with the data and take care of the forest. They need to learn the life cycle of the trees and plants. They need to enjoy every moment with nature and when they are collecting the data too. The reforestation project is important for teaching us how to change the deforestation that happened in the past with the nature. The reforestation helps us to have a natural home and so that we can breathe pure air. Our own country is going to be an example for other countries. They can see how we did the change in nature.

by Alejandra Time to Give Back

by Zeb

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” This is a perfect quote by Margaret Mead regarding its truth and relevance to this project and Monteverde. This project is a reforestation effort to reforest and collect data on the best ways to help an ecosystem that has been damaged to recover, led by Patricia and her great field assistant Ashley. This project started 5 years ago and has been using the students at the CEC to take data. Why reforest? As the human race grows and demands more resources it becomes harder to live harmoniously with our earth and home as we clear forests for cattle and many other things. We must consider the negative effects from soil erosion, habitat destruction and biodiversity loss. Of course nature will do what it does and grow back, although after hundreds of years there may be many invasive species and nutrient loss. What needs to be done is obvious, reforestation. I think it seems unreasonable and unrealistic to restore the forest to its past self exactly. I do think we should try our hardest to restore the resilience because once the forest has the “ability to bounce back after a shock or disaster and recover and reorganize in a changing or new situation,” the rest of the nutrient levels and vegetation structure will come back.

Students reforesting at the CEC is a great way to let us go outside and learn about data collecting and how important reforestation is. Data collection teaches us valuable skills like how to collect data, how to follow the rules, and have a solid work ethic. Our contribution to this project this year was to go out twice a week and collect data, like the DBH, the height, and stuff like that. As the end of the year and this project comes to an end, I look back, and would say I learned the importance of reforestation and data collecting skills.

I don’t know if we should say that we’re ever done reforesting, but I do think we should keep this project going. We should simply keep up the effort to reforest, find an expert on the subject, and spread our skills not only in the CEC, but expand to other places. We can use more students and raise awareness to more students on how important it is to reforest. I think we should just keep the project going and then work on improving it. Like Margaret Mead said, a small group of citizens can change the world. Just like our school, we can raise awareness in the rest of the world, start working with other organizations, and most importantly, fix our broken home.

Appendix A: C.E.C. Student Reforestation Monitoring Protocol

The 10th grade students were divided into four groups and collected the following data: A) Group 1 collected DBH and Canopy Width data B) Group 2 collected Tree Height data C) Group 3 collected Vegetation Structure (contains 4 components) data D) Group 4 collected Species Diversity data

A) Group 1 1. DBH: 1) Find the main trunk of the tree 2) Use the measuring stick to determine where 1.37m is on the tree 3) Use the DBH tape to measure DBH. (If the trunk or branch is at an angle, make sure the tape is perpendicular to the direction of growth). 4) Find other main branches; repeat process. 5) On very small trees (too small for the DBH tape) use the calipers to measure DBH 1 cm off the ground. You must mark an * in the data book if you use the calipers to take a basal measurement! Hints: For trees with multiple trunks, at a minimum the students should collect the same number of DBH readings as the previous year’s students for that tree. If necessary, the students can take DBH measurements for more than last year’s number, but not less. 2. Canopy Width: 1) Find the widest part of the tree (from end of branch to end of branch) and measure with the tape measure. 2) Use the measuring stick to determine a 90 degree angle from your first measurement. 3) Measure the distance (from end of branch to end of branch) of the crown 90 degrees from your first measurement.

B) Group 2 Tree Height For trees greater than 2 meters, use the clinometer: 1) Measure distance to tree from measurer’s eye level. Record under distance. 2) Using the clinometer, with both eyes open: line up left eye with top of tree (partner shake branch if necessary). With right eye, read set of numbers on the left. Record under Angle 1. 3) Line up left eye with base of tree. With right eye, read set of numbers on the left. Record under Angle 2. 4) In Slope column, mark a + if the measurer’s eye level is above the base of the tree. Mark a - if the measurer’s eye level is below the base of the tree. Hints: Try to stand at least 10 m away from the tree and try to stand uphill from the tree. For trees less than 2 meters in height: 1) Measure directly using the PVC 2 meter stick or the meter tape. Record under Height.

C) Group 3 Vegetation Structure (4 components): 1. Ground Cover: 1) Lay the quadrat grid over the subplot (A and B both need to be done.)

2) In EACH of the 16 subsections in the quadrat, estimate and record the % grass, % herbaceous vegetation, % leaf litter or dirt, and % seedlings. Record each % for each quadrant. 2. Non Native/Native Percent Estimation: 1) In EACH of the 16 subsections in the quadrat, estimate and record the % nonnative and % native vegetation. Hints: The total percent of nonnative and native vegetation in each subsection should equal the sum of the % grass, % herbaceous vegetation, and % seedlings that was recorded for vegetation structure. 3. Vegetation depth: 1) Lay the quadrat grid (see figure below) over the subplot (Subplot A and B both need to be done.) 2) Measure the depth in centimeters of the four designated points on the quadrat

4. Leaf Litter: 1) Lay the quadrat grid over the subplot (Subplot A and B both need to be done.) 2) Using a straight pin, pierce the ground at the four designated points on the quadrat 3) At each of the four points, count the total amount of leaves that are on the pin

D) Group 4 Species Diversity: Go to each of the subplots with the identification pictures from the previous year. 1) Identify and record seedlings (# and type) 2) Identify and record herbaceous plants (# and type) 3) Identify and record ferns (# and type) 4) Identify and record grasses (# and type) Hints: If you cannot identify a species, write down a code number with a description in the drawing book and take a photo.

Appendix B: Preliminary Results and Analyses

Figures are based on data from 2009; Analysis done by Patricia Townsend

5 Inga Mixed species 4

Tree measurement (m) measurement Tree 1

0 Height Crown diameter

Figure 1: The variability is high in tree size. The Inga plots have taller trees with larger crowns.

100

60 Inga

40 Mixed species

Percent cover in 1 x 1 m sub-plots 1 x 1 m cover in Percent 0 Herbaceous Leaf litter Bare soil

Figure 2: Sub-plots in the Inga plots had lower invasive grass cover and higher leaf litter than sub-plots in the mixed species plots.

7 Inga Mixed Species 6

Tree DBH (cm) Tree 2

0 Researcher data Student data

Figure 3: Students may have been more familiar with DBH measurements. Their data were very similar to the researchers’ data.

100

80 Inga

Mixed 60 species

Percent herbaceous cover in cover sub-plots herbaceous Percent 0 Researcher data Student data

Figure 4: Students may have simplified the data collection and thus under estimated the amount of grass cover in the sub-plots.