KSTR is reforesting over 100 hectares of a teak farm to create a rainforest in Parrita

We were donated the land in April and a new study just came out about Costa Rica and the effects of reforesting. We are very proud to be a part of this! These are the 2 most important paragraphs, full article below.
"The study showed adding a single tree to pasture could boost, for example, the species number of bird species from near zero to 80. After this initial sharp increase, adding trees continues to add new species, but more gradually. As the stand of trees approaches 100 percent cover within the area of interest, endangered and at-risk species like wildcats and deep forest birds begin to appear.
“This is a win-win situation for planting trees and reforestation. One tree will increase the number of species quickly and planting a forest that fills in 100 percent of the area brings in the really charismatic species most at risk of extinction,” Mendenhall said.
Lengthy and massive biodiversity study validates value of planting trees
By the Stanford University news staff
Historically, conservationists have protected species by placing large swaths of land into preserves and parks. However, only 13 percent of the world’s land area is located in protected natural land. Most of the planet’s species live in ecological gray areas, located within a gradient where one end is pristine wilderness, the other a parking lot.
Protecting species in these gray areas is a challenge because there’s no way to measure biodiversity without time-consuming field surveys. With no way to estimate biodiversity, making decisions for protecting habitat and species is difficult. Researchers at Stanford, through extensive observations, mapping and analysis, have now generated a method of estimating biodiversity based on tree cover. The results can be used by policymakers to help protect biodiversity and endangered species.
“We’ve created a framework for counting something previously uncountable,” said Chase D. Mendenhall, a postdoctoral research fellow in biology at Stanford. Mendenhall is a lead author in a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that has created a quantitative measure of biodiversity across agricultural and urban landscapes.
Over a series of three- to six-month field sessions across 10 years, Mendenhall’s team of 15 researchers hiked across the hilly tropical agricultural landscape of Coto Brus in Costa Rica. In an ecological gradient from protected forest to treeless pasture, the team made a total of 67,737 observations of 908 species, comprised of understory plants, non-flying mammals, bats, birds, reptiles and amphibians.
The scientists then plotted their plant and animal observations on detailed, fine-scale maps from Google Earth aerial photographs.
When they analyzed the results, the importance of tree cover became clear. For four of the six species groups (plants, non-flying mammals, bats and birds), scientists saw a significant increase in the number of species with increasing tree cover visible on Google Earth maps.
At a single point, Mendenhall’s new model predicts biodiversity in the region within a 30- to 70-meter radius and demonstrates how the number and kind of species change as trees are added to plots of land.
“All the animals agreed: trees are great,” Mendenhall said.
The analysis showed adding a single tree to pasture could boost, for example, the species number of bird species from near zero to 80. After this initial sharp increase, adding trees continues to add new species, but more gradually. As the stand of trees approaches 100 percent cover within the area of interest, endangered and at-risk species like wildcats and deep forest birds begin to appear.
“This is a win-win situation for planting trees and reforestation. One tree will increase the number of species quickly and planting a forest that fills in 100 percent of the area brings in the really charismatic species most at risk of extinction,” Mendenhall said.
Taken from: http://www.amcostarica.com/morenews2.htm

Here is a photo of Co-Founder Janine planting trees!