Lizard outside of my room in Palo Verde
The class spent yesterday and today learning more about the Biological Research Station (run by The Organization for Tropical Studies). Some of the information came from our guide, and I'm not so sure that he's the best source so I've included the link to the OTS site. If you're not sure about something, or it sounds very very wrong, then feel free to check it out.
Palo Verde is a biological reserve, named after the Palo Verde (or Green Stick) tree that can be found in the area. The reserve protects a marshland and also tropical dry forest in the Guanacaste Province. It's a fascinating area, filled with unique plants, animals and insects.
They initiated protection of the area because of the marshland, which attracts thousands of migratory birds (the last count was near 35,000!). Ironically, one of the largest financial backers is Ducks Unlimited, a big supporter of the conservation and hunting of waterfowl. Hmmm...
Yesterday the OTS guy took us on a "hike", his name is Marcos. He built up the hike into this big deal, but it ended up being about 1/2 a mile. There were big chunks of limestone along the way and the top was a limestone scramble. Very fun. It's an interesting dry forest, with the rock strewn around. A lot nutrients leach from the rocks, which changes a few things down hill.
Cool tree we saw that does photosynthesis through it's bark
We checked out the marsh from up high. It's not too exciting right now as the rainy season has only just begun. An interesting thing we noticed was that there were cows strewn through out the protected wetland. Weird, right?
They actually have a big typha, or cattail, problem. The marshland wants to move on with it's life-most wetlands fill with plants like cattails at some point, and then graduate to trees like the Palo Verde. It's natural, but since the point of the preserve is to get the wetland and keep it, they're working really hard to get rid of the cattails.
Cattails are pretty hard to keep down, so they use tractors to flatten them (they won't grow if they are submerged in enough water) and cows to chew on them. Are you picturing this? It's a preserved marshland with cows, big old tractors and the most diverse assortment of migratory birds. Very interesting...
It's been fun discussing the management plans for the area, and what we would do if we could. The biggest question is about the 'natural' state. Should it be a wetland? Or should they let it go?
On a side note, the bugs were really horrible on our hike, and it was cut a bit short. I have more bites than I can count, but the mosquitos aren't so bad. The worst bugs are really small, about the size of a very small ant, and they bite HARD. It is very, very wrong, the kind of bugs that keep you from being able to concentrate.
Anyhow. Today we went on a boat ride along the Temisque River. It's a big, muddy river that runs through the tropical dry forest. Coming up on the river is pretty surprising. On our run, Sarah and I ran until the road ended at the river, and saw a sign that said something along the lines of 'beware of the attacking crocodiles'. Very cool.
Although we didn't see any on our run, we made up for it on the boat ride. I'm not sure how many we saw, but it was more than enough. Our driver was kind enough to get close enough to touch the crocodiles even though none of us took him up on the offer. We also saw many interesting birds and a few monkeys.
In the afternoon we learned about my professor's research at Mastatal. Her focus is on streams, and she is attempting to accumulate enough data to figure out how much water is in the surrounding watershed. With the population of Costa Rica growing, it has become increasingly important to figure out how much water will be available to locals. Especially if privatization comes up, as it has in other countries. (Have you seen The Corporation? If not, check it out, it has some good information regarding the privatization of water.)
We head back to Mastatal tomorrow, and I'm looking forwards to it even though it's been wonderful having internet access!! We'll be at Mastatal for two weeks, so no more updates for a while.
I've a few things to say about past adventures, so forgive me for jumping around...
Cool tree we saw that does photosynthesis through it's bark
We checked out the marsh from up high. It's not too exciting right now as the rainy season has only just begun. An interesting thing we noticed was that there were cows strewn through out the protected wetland. Weird, right?
They actually have a big typha, or cattail, problem. The marshland wants to move on with it's life-most wetlands fill with plants like cattails at some point, and then graduate to trees like the Palo Verde. It's natural, but since the point of the preserve is to get the wetland and keep it, they're working really hard to get rid of the cattails.
Cattails are pretty hard to keep down, so they use tractors to flatten them (they won't grow if they are submerged in enough water) and cows to chew on them. Are you picturing this? It's a preserved marshland with cows, big old tractors and the most diverse assortment of migratory birds. Very interesting...
It's been fun discussing the management plans for the area, and what we would do if we could. The biggest question is about the 'natural' state. Should it be a wetland? Or should they let it go?
On a side note, the bugs were really horrible on our hike, and it was cut a bit short. I have more bites than I can count, but the mosquitos aren't so bad. The worst bugs are really small, about the size of a very small ant, and they bite HARD. It is very, very wrong, the kind of bugs that keep you from being able to concentrate.
Anyhow. Today we went on a boat ride along the Temisque River. It's a big, muddy river that runs through the tropical dry forest. Coming up on the river is pretty surprising. On our run, Sarah and I ran until the road ended at the river, and saw a sign that said something along the lines of 'beware of the attacking crocodiles'. Very cool.
Although we didn't see any on our run, we made up for it on the boat ride. I'm not sure how many we saw, but it was more than enough. Our driver was kind enough to get close enough to touch the crocodiles even though none of us took him up on the offer. We also saw many interesting birds and a few monkeys.
In the afternoon we learned about my professor's research at Mastatal. Her focus is on streams, and she is attempting to accumulate enough data to figure out how much water is in the surrounding watershed. With the population of Costa Rica growing, it has become increasingly important to figure out how much water will be available to locals. Especially if privatization comes up, as it has in other countries. (Have you seen The Corporation? If not, check it out, it has some good information regarding the privatization of water.)
We head back to Mastatal tomorrow, and I'm looking forwards to it even though it's been wonderful having internet access!! We'll be at Mastatal for two weeks, so no more updates for a while.
I've a few things to say about past adventures, so forgive me for jumping around...
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