TREE OWNERS NEWS
October 1992
Planting our first tree - June 1, 1992
Our planting season has
just ended, and we are excited to bring you up
to date about all that has happened since our May 19 letter.
Sherry and I were on the
farm for the first several weeks of the planting season, which began June 1, and we
personally planted the first tree. Our team of workers grew to 42 during the planting
season. By mid-September they had planted approximately 40,000 teak trees and a little
more than 20,000 native species, for a total of just over 60,000 tropical hardwood trees
planted in our first year. Approximately 20,000 of these trees belong to you, our tree
owners.
We also planted over a mile
of hedge and more than 1,500 flowering, fruiting and shelter trees that will never be
harvested.
We were in Costa Rica again
late in July for the end of the teak planting and stayed through mid-August until the
planting of the native species was well under way. We will be returning to Costa Rica next
month to review this year's entire planting, and complete plans for next year's work.
We have enclosed two sheets
of photos which Sherry organized to show you the steps in our tree planting, from the
initial preparation of the nursery, to the pictures of 10 week old teak trees in the
field. It is amazing how fast trees can grow in the tropics.
We are separately sending
each of you a copy of a video we have just completed. Although the video was obviously
done in-house, we are excited for you to see the beauty of Costa Rica and Campo Real, the
interesting process of planting trees, and how fast the little trees are already growing.
In addition to planting
trees, we have been busy with other projects on Campo Real. We rough-cut several miles of
new roads within the farm. This is only the first stage for the roads. They will require
several subsequent dry seasons of re-grading, filling, and installing culverts. However,
even in this first stage these new roads have made it much easier to move around the farm.
In May, we completed
construction of our manager's house. We also improved the existing workers' houses on the
farm, and built a new bunkhouse to serve as temporary quarters for the added workers
during the planting season and dormitory accommodations for visiting student groups in the
other months.
We hope to help slow
deforestation in Costa Rica by teaching the children, and their families, about the
importance of protecting the rainforests. To stimulate interest in rainforest trees, this
year we gave each of the more than 100 students in the three area schools near Campo Real,
little trees to take home and plant. We have also offered to help their teachers with
materials, tools and information in making tree nurseries for their schools.
A two year old teak tree growing naturally on Campo Real
Many of you have asked if
we will be planting more teak next year. We have now planted all of the flat areas of the
farm with teak.
To plant additional teak on
the hillsides would require special precautions, since teak's large leaves tend to shade
out the natural ground cover and expose the soil to erosion. We would have to plant the
hillside teak at greater spacing and in bands or strips around the face of the hills,
alternating with unplanted strips of grass. Because of the greater space and expense that
this would require, it is our plan to plant the hillsides with native hardwoods, rather
than teak.
The smaller leaves of the
native hardwood trees allow the sunlight to filter through and the natural ground cover to
continue to protect the soil. The native hardwoods we are planting are all beautiful, many
are becoming scarce even more rapidly than teak, and some already sell for more than teak.
We have established a lower price for planting our native species because they don't have
any unusual planting requirements and they will grow well on the available hillside land.
We have just learned that
our neighbor to the west is interested in selling his farm, and he has granted us a very
brief option.
To be able to add this farm
to our planting program, and to the area of protected beauty that you and your family may
enjoy for as long as you own trees, we will sell some of the trees we planted this year
for our own account, trees that are already in the ground and rapidly growing. The teak,
for example, is already nearly 6 feet tall.
So, until November 15 or
until we have sold enough trees to purchase our neighbor's farm, whichever comes first,
you may buy already-planted trees, still at the Summer 1992 prices.
It is difficult to describe
the joy and satisfaction in planting these trees and working with our dedicated team in
Costa Rica. We encourage you to visit your trees and enjoy the growing beauty of Campo
Real. And we sincerely thank each of you for being an important part of this unique
project. |
