San Gerardo Field Station

The Abuelas Adventureros

This past weekend three of us (the Abuelas) hiked into the Children's Eternal Rainforest, San Gerardo Field Station.  There are over 55,000 acres of protected rainforest in this reserve. San Gerardo is a ranger station located deep within the CER, with views (so they say) extended across the forest to the Arenal Volcano and Lake Arenal.  So they say is because it rained on the way in and the cloud forest was locked in clouds so we didn't see much of anything, but we did have fun.

Hiking in the mud!

Turns out that San Gerardo is wetter than Monteverde (hard to believe, but...)It is about 1220 meters (4000ft.) and is premontaine rainforest and  is on the eastern slope of the divide. I didn't realize that it pretty much rains all the time on the Atlantic side of the mountains (about 2x as much as Monteverde which is "sheltered from the rain".  The temperature was about 18c the day we were there and the sun did finally come out a bit the afternoon we started our trek hom.e  FYI.  The trail to the station is only about 4 klms but it is rough tracks, mostly downhill on the way in but all uphill on the way out. The photo to the left illustrates the extent of the mud.

What is particularly interesting in this area are the epiphytes (45% of the biomass in the region). I don't think I've ever seen so many different kinds of them.  Also there is a wide variety of birds and butterflies and a dense understory.

One of the many bromeliads

The Epiphyte chart in the ranger station

My favorite epiphyte - orange cascade of a flowering orchid

 The funny thing was that in the introductory brochure they talked about rain and mud but two of us were from the Pacific Northwest so we thought, no problem and dismissed it.  Won't do that again.

 

On the way out

Water sogged but we made it!

FYI:  The Children's Eternal Rainforest is a reserve that was created by kids from around the world. It is a sweet, and sad story.   

The Children’s Eternal Rainforest (Bosque Eterno de los Niños, in Spanish, or BEN) is the largest private reserve in Costa Rica, with an area of 22,500 hectares of protected tropical forest in the northwestern region of Costa Rica. The BEN borders the Arenal Volcano National Park, the higher elevations of Monteverde and Miramar, and the Alberto Manuel Brenes Reserve in San Ramon. It continues through the San Carlos zone, close to the populations of San Jorge, La Tiga, San Isidro de Peñas Blancas, Chachagua, and El Castillo.

The BEN exists thanks to the help of children and adults all over the world who have taken part in what is known as the Children’s Rainforest Movement. This fundraising campaign started in Sweden and the United States in 1987, and continued to expand around the world. At present, 44 different countries have contributed to the acquisition and protection of the territories of the BEN.
In addition, on the 18th of September, 2007 the BEN was declared part of the Peace and Water Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.

The sad part is that kids around the world were the ones to get mobilized because the Golden Toad (Incilius periglenes) became extinct.  It was their pennies that created BEN. 


FYI. The Golden Toad is the "poster child" of the amphibian decline the occurred in the 1980's . If I could figure out how to cut and paste from a webpage I would but I am feeling technically challenged today.