Peltogyne Purpurea: An endemic species of Costa Rica and Western Panama, now very scarce because of overexplotation for its valuable timber.

Visiting a tropical forest can be overwhelming because of the enormous number of species found there, especially if you are talking about the Osa Peninsula, one of the most biologically diverse places in the world. This diversity is especially evident amongst plants which, as immobile organisms, are easily observed.  This same diversity, however, can be distressing for a person interested in identifying a species if they don’t have previous knowledge of the area.  This is why, for the last six months, I have been working at Osa Conservation’s Piro Research Station and Greg Gund Conservation Center identifying trees on site, georeferencing various individual trees of distinct species, and creating a digital catalog of the most common species found on the trails (among other things).  Osa Conservation is using all of this information to educate researchers and visitors about tree diversity in the Osa rainforest and for their forest restoration program.

With over 700 species of trees in the Osa rainforest, identification can seem very complicated for those without experience in the field.  A digital collection indicating the most significant characteristics of various species allows for easier recognition of species.  There are many simple characteristics that aid in identification, including the type of leaves and the position of the stem, the presence or absence of secretion, translucent dots, glands, or pubescence (“hairs”) which together can facilitate the recognition of families, genera and even species.  We’re also adding photographs and dried plant samples to this information to help us compare and verify the species with which we are working.

Georeferencing various trees at Osa Conservation will give researchers and education groups interested in finding and studying a certain species the ability to locate it effortlessly and, once there, see the living specimen and characteristics that are impossible to detect in a photograph or  plant sample (ie. trunk or secretion).  Georeferencing individual trees is also assisting Osa Conservation’s forest restoration program, which is carried out in partnership with NRDC and the Wisconsin Natural Resource Foundation.  Georeferencing allows us to easily locate and observe the fructification process of certain tree species whose seeds we collect and nurture on site in the OC nursery, better enabling us to restore degraded habitats with native species.

Within a determined site, there are generally groups of very common species while others may be very scarce.  For the more common species, and for the majority of individuals who are curious about tree identification yet lack previous knowledge, a digital catalog will be very useful; for the scarcer species, and for those individuals with more knowledge in the field (ie. researchers), georeferencing is fundamental, as locating the trees would otherwise be very difficult.

In order to restore these incredible forests, we must diversify the native tree species used as much as possible.  This is a laborious process because most of the sought after tree species are very scarce and searching for them requires long hours walking through the dense forest paying close attention to tree trunks and leaves.  Once located, you have to periodically visit the trees to determine their flowering and fruiting seasons. Many trees produce very few fruits or very small fruits—so finding native tree seeds requires a lot of patience and very careful observation.  Also, due to the abundance of fauna in the area, many of the seeds and fruits are dispersed, predated upon or parasitized once they hit the forest floor (or even while still on the tree) affecting the number of seeds that can be collected.

We estimate that many of the seeds collected over the course of our reforestation project will be species that have never before been cultivated in the history of mankind. So overcoming these challenges is an exciting step toward restoring the Osa’s magnificent forests and conserving the many endangered species therein.  In addition, this Project will allow us to generate very valuable information for future projects or reforestation efforts not just for the Osa, but for other tropical rainforest ecosystems as well.

A Bombacopsis sessilis seedling in the nursery of the Greg Gund Conservation Center. This species is endemic of Pacific Costa Rica and Panama.

- Juan Manuel Ley, resident botanist from the University of Costa Rica

A group of 8^th graders from Crane Country Day School recently traveled to Costa Rica and fell in love with the country during their ten day stay. The class of forty students ventured all the way from Santa Barbara, California to the Osa Peninsula!

Once the students made it back to California, they realized they wanted to help out in some way. Their trip to Costa Rica had inspired them so much that they decided to raise money for Friends of the Osa. Their efforts proved fruitful as they managed to raise $400.

The class chose to support our forest restoration effort on the Osa Biodiversity Center’s Cerro Osa property: our new program plants one native tree for every $10 donation. With the money raised by these students, 40 new trees were planted.

We are glad that these students felt so inspired by the trip and hope that they will continue to conserve natural habitat wherever they are. We really appreciate the effort made by the Crane 8^th graders and send a big thank you out to these students for their support!

Crested Guan by Kory Kramer

Lately we have been seeing Crested Guans (Penelope purpurascens) along the road up in the trees heading up to Friends of the Osa’s Osa Biodiversity Center at Cerro Osa.  I first noticed a family of 4 Guan individuals in one of our forest restoration plots a few weeks back as I was conducting bird counts.  The adult female of the group became fairly agitated as I walked right underneath her on my way to my next monitoring point.  I assumed she either had a nest or was with her young of the year.  Though my nest searching instincts tend to be very strong I left her alone as I continued on with my bird count.  They can be quite loud when they feel threatened and I was unable to hear any other birds in the forest with her so upset. Since then we have seen several Crested Guans (or Penelope, as they are fondly referred to as here in Costa Rica for its genus), along the road and so I thought this would be a good time to introduce them here on the pages of our blog and talk a bit about why it is so special to have them here.  Oh, and they are also called Pava which means turkey in Spanish.

The Crested Guan is quite large, about turkey size, weighing in at about 1.7 kg.  Because of their large body size and evidently tasty meat they have been hunted along with other species in the Cracidea family such as Curassows, Guans and Chachalacas all throughout their range.  Larger bodied birds tend to have low abundance, and that along with a small clutch size of 2 to 3 eggs, a slow reproduction period (incubation alone may take as long as 34 days), and hunting pressure makes this species rare in unprotected forests and more vulnerable to changes in the landscape.

Why are these species so important you might ask?  These species are essential to the biodiversity of the tropical rainforest because they are mainly frugivores (fruit eaters) and play an important roll in fruit seed dispersal which helps with seed germination and forest regeneration.  When we lose large seed dispersers like Crested Guan we lose the mechanism by which larger seeds are moved and placed elsewhere for them to germinate and take root.

This is why it is so special to see them around here as much as we do.  Cerro Osa is a 600 ha parcel acquired by Friends of the Osa in 2008 and is an important area for species protection and conservation.  Now with the decrease in hunting pressure and our forest restoration projects underway, we hope to be seeing a lot more Crested Guans, Great Curassows and Gray-headed Chachalacas here at the Osa Biodiversity Center.

The Crested Guan was photographed here at the Osa Biodiversity Center at Cerro Osa by Kory our managing director here at Friends of the Osa.

The Cerro Osa Reforestation Project

The Tree Nursery at Cerro Osa Reforestation Project

Cerro Osa’s local staff, Juan and Agustín Mendoza, worked hard in 2009 to improve Friends of the Osa’s native tree nursery. We now have more than 4,000 seedlings of over 40 native species.

Seeds are collected by hand from the mature forest of the Osa Biodiversity Center.  The seeds that are easiest to find often come in a delicious fruit package, making these trees good candidates to stimulate natural forest restoration by attracting seed dispersers such as birds, bats and fruit-eating mammals.

Many of these seedlings will be used in the forest restoration of Cerro Osa’s teak and pochote plantations.

In June we partnered with conservation-minded neighbors to plant 60 trees of 13 native species to return part of their property to forest.  We also donated 100 trees to La Palma high school as part of a senior project.

Friends of the Osa (FOO) also known as Amigos de Osa, runs a research station and field programs working to protect the globally significant biodiversity found on the Osa Peninsula.

At the Osa Biodiversity Center work centers around supporting scientific research and environmental education, as well as hands on programs like the Sea Turtle Conservation project. Each year researchers and volunteers follow the arrival of several species of sea turtles that nest on the nearby beach, tagging turtles, protecting nests and hatchlings, and compiling important data on the numbers of animals and the success of their nests.

At the Cerro Osa Station, FOO is working to reforest areas adjacent to the Osa National Wildlife Refuge (ONWR), a stewardship program in partnership with local landowners. This important refuge forms a biological corridor through the privately held lands outside the protection of the nearby national park. Managing this important corridor for the Osa’s monkeys, jungle cats and other species is another of our projects.

At our offices in Puerto Jiménez, the small town where most of the local population live, our Costa Rican staff are involved in several programs designed to help the region deal with rapid development, and the rising amount of trash and pollution that come with it. Here our work on clean water and recycling efforts have had the most impact.

Osa is a rare and exceptional place, for it’s beauty and because of the high diversity of species, one of the most biodiverse places in the hemisphere. Despite this world class status, it is a remote and often ignored corner of a developing nation. It is under extreme threat as pressure to develop and modernize reaches Costa Rica. Threats include projects for industrial scale fish farms, increase in the scale of gravel mining, efforts to reopen old gold mining operations, even within protected areas, over-development for tourism including increased air traffic, new airports, water use by and sewage from hotels. Meanwhile, global climate change and increased pressure on species outside the peninsula threaten to make Osa a biological island. There is a dire need for the completion of the plan to create protected corridors between Corcovado Park, the major national park on the peninsula and the Piedras Blancas Park on the mainland.

In Washington DC, our staff work to provide funding and to raise awareness about our programs. We have worked to build strong alliances with local, regional and international partner organizations including The Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, ACOSA, MINAET (Costa Rica’s Ministry of Energy and Environment) and others.

Your support is important to us, too, and by signing the email list and keeping in touch, by fanning our facebook page and getting your friends to do the same, or by becoming a volunteer and helping us in our work, or by donating and showing that you think what we are doing is important.

Any way that you can join us means a lot. So keep reading this blog, check back and comment on what you see.