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JimS
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| Joined: | Wed Aug 10th, 2005 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: Wed Aug 10th, 2005 11:57 am |
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Hi, I'm Jim and have just joined the forum. I'm originally from Florida but now live in the San Jose area and recently purchased a 9 hectare finca in Palmichal, in the mountains about midway between San Ignacio de Acosta and Santiago de Puriscal.
The land has been mostly cleared and used as pasture for many years and I'm interested in reforesting, probably in conjunction with growing shade coffee. I'm on the southwest slope of the mountain at elevations of about 1,300 to 1,400 meters (4,300 to 4,600 feet). The land is almost all sloping but not so severely that it will prevent working the land.
I'm in the very early information gathering and planning stage now. As time goes on I'll be interested in sharing information and experiences with other members of the forum.
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Fred Morgan
Sponsor
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Posted: Wed Aug 10th, 2005 01:38 pm |
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Hi Jim, welcome to the group.
It sounds like if you are interested in this we should get Janet to comment. She purchases coffee from plantations with Organic, shade grown coffee.
She will know what are the right trees and for your altitude.
We will look forward to the information that you will be sharing with us - and pictures are always welcome!
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JimS
Member
| Joined: | Wed Aug 10th, 2005 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: Wed Aug 10th, 2005 02:08 pm |
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Thanks, Fred. I'd love to hear from Janet or anyone else with experience and advice about tree species for high altitude land. I need to make some economic use of the land, but higher altitude land such as mine isn't very suitable for teak or most other tropical hardwoods.
It seems that many of the tree species being used by high altitude coffee growers are selected primarily to maximize the coffee production without much thought really being given to selecting the best native species for reforesting the land. My primary interest is in trying to recreate a natural forest environment on the land, but I'm also located in a prime coffee growing region and trying to produce good quality shade coffee seems to be a natural complementary use.
This is all still very new to me and I have much to learn before making any long range plans or decisions.
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Fred Morgan
Sponsor
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Posted: Wed Aug 10th, 2005 02:40 pm |
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Probably you best resource is going to be MINAE - do you speak Spanish? You are correct, Teak won't grow that high (the limit is around 500 meters) and many of the other woods.
However, there are many other trees suitable for sure for reforestation. There are somewhere around 1,900 separate kinds of trees in Costa Rica.
Are you ever wanting to harvest wood, or are you primarily returning habitat? There is a combination approach as well, which is what we are doing.
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JimS
Member
| Joined: | Wed Aug 10th, 2005 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: Wed Aug 10th, 2005 03:54 pm |
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Fortunately I'm fluent in Spanish and MINAE is on my list of resources. I haven't contacted them yet. Economics dictate that I do some selective harvesting in the future. However, I'm not interested in "tree farming" and want to concentrate on good land management and forestry management practices. If I decide to plant coffee or fruit, I'll follow the same guidelines of low intensity, low impact agriculture. I'll post some photos of the property within the next few days.
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Fred Morgan
Sponsor
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Posted: Wed Aug 10th, 2005 04:15 pm |
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One thing to be aware of is the difference between a forest and a plantation. It is very important in Costa Rica that you set it up as a plantation if you are ever going to hope to harvest any wood. Otherwise, you won't be able to cut it. Period.
A forest has undergrowth and is not maintained, a plantation is maintained, even if it has mixed ages and not all trees are for harvest and even if you have coffee bushes as undergrowth.
If you don't set it up as a plantation, MINAE will consider it a secondary forest, and you won't ever be able to harvest anything. So says the two forestry engineers that we use. We have two fincas - one which is a plantation moving to a forest, the other is pastures with many, many trees moving to a forest. Both have to be managed as plantations, even though one is almost a forest.
As you may or not be aware, Costa Rica very carefully monitors their forestry. Permits are necessary to cut most trees and you must submit for approvals. Plantations immediately get approvals - secondary forest almost always do not. The reason is that a scondary forest is where the food for the wildlife is. However, you can create the same if you wish.
So, your first research should be into the laws or you could find yourself with nothing to show for your investment, except for the return of land to forest.
The important law to research is the Ley 7575 - it should be very interesting reading. By the way, a good forestry engineer is a really good idea. They are not expensive and they will help you a lot. We pay about 50 dollars a day for one who has 20 years of experience.
Soil tests will be very important before you know what you can plant as well. To do the soil test on one of our fincas took 2 days, there were 200 samples over an area of 167 acres (67 hectares). It cost $200 dollars. Well worth every penny. It takes a long time to grow trees - you don't want to start wrong... 
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JimS
Member
| Joined: | Wed Aug 10th, 2005 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: Wed Aug 10th, 2005 04:53 pm |
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| Thanks, Fred. That's great advice and much appreciated. I'll definitely want a forestry engineer before doing anything, and soil testing as well. I'm probably a few months away from starting on anything but will probably want to meet with a forestry engineer within the next few weeks. Can you give me contact information for the engineer you use?
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Fred Morgan
Sponsor
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Posted: Wed Aug 10th, 2005 05:03 pm |
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Both ours live in Atenas - so that isn't that far from you I believe. However, I would recommend going to the MINAE office and finding out who they recommend. Getting a forestry engineer who is on first name basis with the local office is a great idea.
Also, just so that you know, MINAE is excellent people. Very knowledgable, very good to work with. In my opinion, probably the best government organization in Costa Rica - at least that I have found.
By the way, if you ever want to come over to our side of the mountain, I tend to visit the plantations on the weekend. Our situation won't be anything like yours, but you might find it interesting.
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JimS
Member
| Joined: | Wed Aug 10th, 2005 |
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| Posts: | 5 |
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Posted: Wed Aug 10th, 2005 05:10 pm |
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| Thanks, I'll certain take you up on your invitation and also will invite you to visit my property once I'm a little farther along. I'll stay in touch through the board and keep you posted on my progress.
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