PLANTING SEASON HAS ARRIVED!
The Titi Conservation Alliance was founded over 15 years ago to promote the sustainable habitat of the Squirrel Monkey, or Mono Titi, and other species as well, by focusing on 2 major areas-reforestation of lands within the Naranjo River Biological Corridor and environmental education of school children in the area. Every year since 2001, we have planted between 3000 to 5000 trees on properties owned by more than 40 collaborating local landowners. The trees are planted by school children as part of the education program and by our member volunteers. TCA also donates trees to individuals and partner organizations who are interested in reforesting areas of their private properties.
This year we started our planting program for 2017 in early May with a celebration of Earth Day at the Escuela Villa Nueva. Villa Nueva is a small community located outside of Quepos, at the base of Cerro Nara where the watershed for Quepos and Manuel Antonio is located. This school has received the Blue Flag award for several years and also has an active nursery greenhouse for teaching plant biology to the kids. The school planted 200 trees on property owned by Guillermo Rodriguez.
In June, the official “Month of the Environment” in Costa Rica, we celebrated with several different activities. First on June 6, we planted 200 trees along the Chorro section of the Naranjo River with H2O Adventures again with students from Escuela Villa Nueva. We then moved on to plant 200 trees on a property in the Inmaculada area of Quepos with our longtime supporter and member Iguana Tours. On June 10, some 20 employee volunteers from Schneider Electric, a large multinational located in San Jose, came and planted 250 trees as part of their sustainability program. We are so pleased to note that the Schneider committee also made a generous donation of a brand new motoguaraña, otherwise known as a weed whacker, which is so important to prep and maintain the areas we plant throughout the corridor.
Finally to celebrate the “Dia del Arbol”, or Tree Day, on June 16 we planted over 600 trees on property owned by Palma Tica along the Savegre River, the southern boundary of the Naranjo River Corridor. Students from from Escuela Inmaculada and El Estadio participated in the fun activity with refreshments donated by another longtime member Tulemar Neighbor Association (AVAT) and Mabinsa Condominio management company. On June 21 kids form Los Delfines finished up planting the area of Palma Tica. In all of these plantings we always strive to plant a variety of species, aiming for a mix of 30% endangered species such as cocobolo, nazareno and cristobal, another 30% of fruit/food trees for the monkeys and other animals, and finally the balance of more common native species such as Sota de caballo, mayo, and corteza.
If you wish to organize or participate in a Tree Planting with TCA, just drop us a line at our email [email protected] or call Russ Jensen at cell 8502-2034.