Initial Bird Counts in Plantations

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Conservación Panama, a U.S./Panamanian conservation organization that engages local communities to conserve natural resources, recently visited a few of our forestry projects in Arimae.

Their purpose was to do a preliminary assessment of bird populations in our plantations, with the eventual goal of understanding if mixed species timber plantations could serve as suitable habitat for birds to thrive.

While more data is needed to determine the potential of timber plantations to serve as bird habitat, the variety of birds and their counts in Arimae is an encouraging sign. We look forward to working with Conservacion Panama on future site assessments. 

The Skinny on Thinning

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The Skinny on Thinning

The dry season in Panama (January to April) brings sun, passable roads, and a lot of work for foresters. In December of 2013, we bought a small Stihl 250 chainsaw for the work ahead. The most pressing issue was thinning out the stands of teak: at about year seven, teak experiences acopamiento, or crowning, when the tops of the trees, initially planted at 3 x 3 meters start to touch. 

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A silvopastoral experiment: cows and trees

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A silvopastoral experiment: cows and trees

Last month we began using cattle to control pasture growth on our Finca #2 in Nuevo Paraiso, Rio Congo.

Our employee Jose "Ino" had been asking us to try this system, known as silviculture, to reduce our maintenance costs and to generate income. So, we decided to try a controlled experiment to see if the cows would control the vegetation without damaging the trees. 

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