Applying Fertilizer to 10,000 Seedling Trees
- The workers have applied 5 sacks of fertilizer, Mosies (the farm administrator) brought another 4 to finish applying small amounts to the 10,000 seedlings recently planted in 2010.
We are taking out the fence between area 2010 and area 2007 (below) to put it between 2010 and the 9 hectares not yet planted. That way the cattle can graze on the unplanted 9 hectares.
The work plan we have arranged with Moises is: (a) herbicide to 4 hectares of 2007 plantings to control the grasses, (b) herbicide to the 10 ha of 2010 following the lines of the trees, (c) finish the fertilization of 2010, (d) install the donor signs, (e) install the benches in the Triumvirate Forest 2007, (f) plant 10 tree seedlings (Vochysia ferruginea) in lot 1 of 2010, and (g) spray the cedar and mahogany of 2007. This represents another 3 weeks of work until we can pass to clean and thin the Connecticut College and CMEEC forests.
We are careful to leave the papaya plants that naturally regenerate so that birds can feed on their fruit.
Below, our field crew chief is pruning the mahogany or cedar tree to leave a single stem. Mahogany should do well in this shade if we spray it monthly against the shoot borer and occasionally prune it.
Food for the Habitat
Oldest research forests were installed in a UNDP program beginning in 1964 in Costa Rica. The results are being used in designing new models of forests to achieve the goals.
New models are innovative and focus on mixed-species forests as potentially more productive than mono-cultures, more efficient in capturing carbon and, importantly, more wildlife friendly and biologically stable in the face of climate change.
