Although the progress is still somewhat slow we could finally take the first steps in our Observatory Project. Unfortunately due to restriction imposed by the national government we could not carry out the training for the field assistants as planned last weekend. But we managed to explore the reserve within a few days in order to find suitable spots for setting up the three hectare plots.
Edison, Ana Mariscal, Noé and Holger went up and down and back up the mountain and YES, we found three beautiful parts of primary forest at various altitudes where we will start working - most likely by the end of May - and investigate the vegetation. The first step will be setting up the plots and subplots within which all trees with a minimum diameter will be measured, identified and mapped.
The plan is to also carry out other monitoring activities (birds, mammals, orchids, reptiles, etc.) in the future in order to understand the dynamics in our cloud forest a lot better than we do now. This is also an invitation for students and scientists to do their research in those parts of the forest in order to combine the data from different studies - this way we can complete the picture of "how-to-forest-works" bit by bit.
Are excited. Can't wait to start the work.