boxter326
Registered: October 2008
City/Town/Province: Saint Louis
Posts: 1
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My name is Austin Taggart. This past summer, I participated in a project in which I planted trees near the Children’s Eternal Rainforest in Costa Rica. The Children’s Rainforest came to be through a series of events. A group of first and second grade student’s in Sweden heard about the destruction of rainforests, and wanted to help The initial goal was to raise money to buy and save twenty five acres, and it has since expanded drastically. Through the efforts of leader Sharon Kinsman, children in forty-four countries now have contributed to the campaign to help save the rainforest. The Children’s eternal rainforest has now expanded to fifty-four thousand acres.
For my project, I helped plant trees with a group of workers from the company Whole Food’s, who were brought down by my step-fathers herbal supplement company, New Chapter. New Chapter has an herbal farm down in Costa Rica, close to the Children’s rainforest. The goal of the project was to create a corridor to connect to Children’s Rainforest to other surrounding areas of rain forest, so that animals could safely migrate across .Also, it provides different levels of elevation, and provides different kinds of food for the animals Some of the native hardwood trees we planted were Almendra, Cebo, and Ron Ron. The Almendra is home to green macaw’s, an endangered species of birds, and these trees provide food for wild pigs. After planting these trees, it will take three years for the trees to grow enough so that human’s will no longer have to look after them. At this point, they will be taller than any other growth in the area, and will be able to withstand ant attacks. It will take ten to fifteen years for some species of trees to flower fruits, which will provide food for the animals. After forty years it is called a climax forest, or a mature forest. Furthermore, the forest will provide homes for birds, bees, and butterflies, all of which are important for pollination and the growth of plants.
In order for this project to be successful, the areas where we planted must be monitored, and I know that they are. It is imperative that the soil in these areas is not disturbed by builders or renovators. These measures to protect the area are being taken by people who work with my step-fathers company, and they are fighting certain groups such as ATV companies who want to build tracks and courses on this area for commercial usage. The expansion of these corridors is important because it will help preserve the rainforest, something vital to the continued successful existence of our planet. I feel like the Apprentice Ecologist Initiative Program is a very good and important program, and I feel like I made a valuable contribution in an attempt to preserve and save the rainforest.
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