A grounding experience: connecting with soil

 

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Photos by Danielle Pycior

Written by Bry Barber

Our tour guide, Julio Rojas, led us up a narrow dirt path into the developing forest behind La Calandria Lodge.

We were on our way to pack soil for seeding trees in the Bellbird Biological Corridor, which stretches from the Pacific Ocean up to the Monteverde Cloud Forest.  

About 50 feet along the path, the lodge was barely out of sight when he stopped and turned to face the group to explain how the forest was changing. He knocked on a tree trunk — a hollow pop! pop! rebounded. 

It was a cecropia tree. Azteca ants live inside and feed off its nutrients and sugars. “They protect this tree,” he said. “If you shake it, they will attack you.” 

Rojas looked up and pointed to its sparsely leafed top. He said since cecropias only have leaves at the top to absorb sunlight, they are usually part of a young forest. This forest, he said, is about 50 years old.

As we continued our walk, Rojas explained the forest was formerly farmland or pasture. “Imagine being on this land 50 years ago, or 60 years ago, or 70, or 80.” A forest would not have existed. 

That’s where Rojas’ conservation work comes in: bringing the forest back to life. And that’s when we got to get our hands dirty. 

We packed black plastic bags the size of small coffee canisters with soil for native tree seeds to germinate and begin their lives in the corridor. Rojas offered gloves, but we didn’t use them. We wanted to feel the soil between our fingers. We encircled a waist-high table covered with a large mound of soil. About half a dozen metal scoops, their handles rising like silver seedlings from the bottom of a mountainside forest, were staked into the dirt mound.

I pressed my hands into the warm pile of dark brown earth. The soil seemed to spring back into my palms, pulsing with the heartbeat of future life. I felt a deeper connection with the forest. I grabbed some of the larger chunks of soil and crumbled them in my hands, feeling it’s grimy, damp texture and the way it molded against my skin when I squeezed it. It crumbled easily, but still had enough moisture to pack well. 

We laughed around the table as we packed the dirt, all the while connecting with our sense of touch in a grounding experience, and finding small pleasures in that moment. “This should be our new anxiety relief activity,” Danielle joked. 

In the end, we packed 30 bags in 30 minutes. It may have been a modest exercise in healing the forest and we may never see the results in our lifetimes, but it was at least a small contribution to the corridor. We also learned about the process of restoration, which hopefully will improve the lives of future generations. 

And it was a lot of fun.

Edited By Mark Powers

Set Sail for a Shipping Shake-Up

By Holly Enowski 

PUNTA MORALES, Costa Rica – Adjacent to a wooden ship frame on stilts, the only female builder in view, Elly Feeney of England, is sprinkled in sawdust. She is a boatbuilder by trade who ventured to Punta Morales, like 140 others from 25 nations.

She’s working on Finnish-inspired Ceiba in the small fishing community. The vessel is the first cargo ship free of fossil fuel on an American continent. Ceiba is being built in the pursuit of sustainability.

SailCargo Inc., the emerging transportation firm behind Ceiba, was founded by two Canadians and is funded by 130 investors. The ship’s anticipated journey is beyond 1,016 kilometers of Pacific Ocean shoreline in Costa Rica.  

“We want to set the precedent that a for-profit company can do more,” said Danielle Doggett, CEO of SailCargo Inc. “We have a triple bottom line: financial, social, environment,” and more than 600 potential investors have shown interest. One money-generating venture that has caught wind: expanded markets for specialty nuts, seafood, and organic oils that will be transported on the Pacific Exchange Line. 

While global in nature, the vessel empowers Costa Rica, which is en route to becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral country by 2021. Residents of Punta Morales benefit from free wood, workforce development and jobs. The project is aiding in community growth through the purchase of the land and a workforce comprised of at least half Costa Rican natives, Doggett said. 

Next to a half-constructed Ceiba sits Boaters Construction School, which offers short-term courses designed for locals. Several fishing boats constructed replicate those in use, and 16 fishermen are graduates, evidence of a strong global project with local engagement. 

Edited by Bry Barber 

A progressive past: local fisherman uses traditional fishing techniques to save Golfo de Nicoya

Illustrated by Abby Blenk

Written by Alexandra Sharp

COSTA DE PÁJAROS, Costa Rica — The catch seemed endless. Each time Manrique Alonso Álvarez Medrano and his father threw a line in, a fish would bite. Eventually, piles of them crowded the wooden boat, more than Álvarez and his father could handle. The weight became too much. Slowly, their fishing boat filled with Pacific water and sank. 

Many years have passed since Álvarez made such catches, the only time they were too successful. The once abundant Golfo de Nicoya, a Pacific gulf along Costa Rica’s Costa de Pájaros, has lost much of its fish from irresponsible practices. And as schools of fish move farther out in search of cooler waters, fishers like Álvarez struggle to stay afloat.

To combat these effects, Álvarez started Cama Pez, an organization that receives, stores and distributes fish caught with artisanal practices. Artisanal fishing helps fishers maintain a consistent catch while also supporting ocean life. They fish by hand using special hooks and live bait, and any fish not yet mature is tossed back for repopulation.

“With the passage of time, fishermen have joined (Cama Pez),” Álvarez said. “They had seen that it’s a good initiative, since we have to keep protecting the gulf. Families have integrated into Cama Pez and it has grown so that we all benefit.”

Cama Pez is also a financial anchor for more than 100 families. Álvarez became a fisherman at age seven because his family believed fishing was more profitable than school, but the fishing industry has grown increasingly unstable. 

“As a fisherman, I need our sea, our gulf,” Álvarez explained.

To keep this profession from drowning, Álvarez hopes artisanal fishing ensures families can maintain a sustainable lifestyle. He dreams of a day with no illegal fishing, where society prioritizes healthy, sustainable fisheries. Only this way will fishing produce higher quality products for everyone. 

Image edited by Carla Willoughby

Story edited by Bry Barber and Danielle Pycior

Sustainable fishing: pulling back the net

By Moy Zhong

GOLFO DE NICOYA, Costa Rica

Edited by Danielle Pycior and Alexandra Sharp

Not All Soil Is Created Equal

By Zia Kelly

MONTEVERDE, Costa Rica — The landscape transformed as we ascended eastward into the Tilarán Mountains. I watched as patches of palm trees and dry deciduous foliage disappeared behind us and leafy evergreen trees stood tall against the setting sun. What a sight it is, I thought, to see the seemingly infinite diversity of life flourish.

But Rose-Marie Muzika, an ecologist and trip cofacilitator, pointed to an outcrop of soil that rose over the side of the highway. The brownish-red dirt, Muzika said, is depleted.

Depleted? The endless greenery zooming past us made that hard for me to believe. But all of the nutrients that normally make soil fertile for growth are in the plants, not the soil, she said.

The Bellbird Biological Corridor’s diversity goes beyond flora and fauna. Some parts of the country, like the dry lowlands of Guanacaste, have fertile soil that can support life even after centuries of dormancy. But in this patch of wildland we were passing through, life cannot be easily restored.

Nutrient-poor soil is typical in tropical regions. Except for a thin layer of top soil, almost all of the nutrients necessary for the forests’ growth are stored within the flora and return to the earth when older plants die.

In a healthy ecosystem, this nutrient-poor soil isn’t a threat.

But when plants are removed from the system entirely, usually for agriculture or residential development, the soil has no biomass to reabsorb. When the trees are gone, nothing stops the top soil from eroding.

This means that if these plants are uprooted, there’s no getting them back. This is it.

Muzika’s example provided a window into the complexity of the landscape that the corridor’s advocates are trying to restore. As the trip continues, I will be listening closely and asking questions about how these complexities are accounted for.

Edited by Bry Barber

Tropical storm Nate produces silver lining with SailCargo Inc.

By Bry Barber

PUNTA MORALES, Costa Rica — Intense rains and flooding damaged Costa Rican homes and infrastructure by the time Tropical Storm Nate reached the mainland in October 2017 — a phenomenon of warmer Atlantic waters and volatile atmospheric conditions. The Tamarindo News reported 11 deaths and 11,500 residents without homes or access to potable water. Consequently, 178 shelters were opened within days.

Natural disasters demand a response to chaos and destruction. For SailCargo Inc., trees damaged by Nate provided materials currently used to construct what may become the first carbon-negative cargo ship.  

About two years later, inside the half-built ribs of the boat, co-founders of SailCargo. Danielle Doggett and Lynx Guimond believe their project will become a carbon negative marine freight vessel: Ceiba. By the end of 2021, Doggett and Guimond hope to have the vessel in the water. It’s currently just beyond the shipyard and within reach of the protected mangrove forest. 

From the bottom deck, its beams reach about 15 feet into the warm sky — about 60 feet from the ground. These beams, made of non-native microbe-resistant common Cypress, were supported by wild Tamarindo pillars, which were uprooted and washed down from Monteverde’s Cloud Forest during the storm. The destruction reaped from the storm was then reconditioned by SailCargo as a weapon against climate change. 

Edited by Alexandra Sharp

Infographic by Paige Kasten

Why Mangroves Matter

By Danielle Pycior and Mark Powers

GOLFO DE NICOYA, Costa Rica – As the waves softly crashed against the densely tangled roots of the mangrove trees, birds sang together throughout the Golfo de Nicoya. 

Over the past 50 years, a third of mangrove forests worldwide have been destroyed at a rate three to five times faster than other forest types because of pollution, deforestation and aquaculture. Out of 70 mangrove species across the tropical and subtropical coastal regions, 11 are endangered. This loss leads to a decrease in biodiversity and an economic cost of $42 billion annually. 

As productive and complex ecosystems, these forests support wildlife such as fish, crab, shellfish, crocodiles, sloths and various bird species. Mangroves are able to grow in high saltwater because of their adapted root systems that extend both above and below sea-level.

Mangrove forests take up 140,000 square kilometers across the globe, which is 2.5 percent the size of the Amazon rainforest. The trees can hold four times more carbon than rainforests. From 2000 to 2015, 122 million tons of carbon were released because of mangrove loss. 

Through decreased precipitation, warmer temperatures, sea-level rise, and increased and harsher storms, mangrove forests have more challenges, and yet they bring greater protections against climate change for the communities surrounding them. 

Along with diverse species, mangroves support over 200 million people. They provide food, shelter, economic benefits through potential exports, tourism and coastal protection. Mangroves’ thick root systems help with resilience to erosion, hurricanes, tsunamis, sea-level rise and saltwater encroachment in drinking water.

In 1996, a law passed in Costa Rica to protect mangroves against felling and harvesting in the forests, helping facilitate the future protections that followed. While other countries continue to exploit this natural resource, Costa Rica has chosen to protect them, acknowledging their complex importance.

Edited by Alexandra Sharp

A New Side of the World

By Danielle Pycior

COLUMBIA, Mo., United States — When I step off the plane into this new corner of the world, I will have legally been in six countries out of roughly 200. But what exactly does it mean to be in a new country?

It’s easy to hop off the plane, wander around to various sites and have a memorable experience, but what do we leave behind? How does our presence in a new country affect locals, economies and cultures? How do those concepts influence and change us?

If done with intentionality and purpose, a new country can bring a new way of thinking, new friendships and a new respect for the ways in which others live and interact with their piece of this earth. So what do I intend to experience from this trip?

I will learn how we are both different and similar to Ticos. I will learn from scientists, activists and community members. I will think deeply and critically about how I interact with the people I come into contact with and the work that I produce.

I will be changed and will change others, in small and large ways.

I will laugh and get to know my colleagues and those people I am lucky enough to meet. I will be humbled and tired and inspired. I will enjoy every second of this wonderful opportunity to be pulled out of the zone that I currently operate and experience the world.

I will grow and appreciate every chaotic beautiful second of it as I am challenged to be a better writer, reporter and human being.

 

 

 

Hoping, not expecting

By Moy Zhong

COLUMBIA, Mo., United States — I’ve always worried about expectations, especially meeting others’ expectations of me. In elementary school, I thought that dolling up for the first day of classes determined a standard to which I had to dress every day, or else I’d fail to meet everyone’s perception of me based on day one’s precedent. “You never get the second chance to make a first impression,” so instead I wore casual clothing not just because I was comfortable, but because I could dress casually consistently.

I’ve since learned that clothes don’t determine who you are, but more importantly, expectations of uncontrollable factors can cripple an adventurous spirit—especially if unmet. “Could haves” and “should haves” often plague the mind when plans go awry. Even when the true outcome is as joyous as an intended ideal, broken expectations can haunt reality regardless.

Instead of expectations, I’m choosing to focus on hopes and goals. Both vary from expectations because they aren’t set in stone. They establish ideals of the future but are not predictions that hinder variability and spontaneity through fear.

Going to Costa Rica, I hold high hopes for escapades and fresh, new experiences. I hope to build relationships with my fellow journalists and vibrant locals and personalities. I strive to grow as a creator through fieldwork and explore untouched forms of storytelling.

But, I recognize that some expectations are unavoidable; I would be naive otherwise. I am expected to meet deadlines; I am expected to report under stress; I am expected to produce work that meets a certain standard of excellence; I am expected to get my boots muddy. In the face of struggle, though, I hope to turn mistakes into lessons. I aim to learn as much as possible abroad and make the most out of this remarkable opportunity.

Costa Rica, bring it on.

Future Bedtime Stories

By Reid Glenn

 

FULTON, Missouri — I stood, almost petrified with fear, looking at the green water 60 feet below. I knew I would be fine, but instincts prevented me from jumping. I had set my mind on the climb to the outcrop, though, and people were watching. I had to do it.

I hate to venture outside of my box. My comfort zone is where I would choose to reside if given the choice, but life inside is boring. I may be comfortable sitting at home all of Christmas break, reading Star Wars lore and watching Netflix, but I would soon become bored and fat.

Despite their coziness, my life wasn’t meant for comfort zones. Boredom pushes me off my couch and joy drags me into the unknown. I long for experiences and stories to tell my future kids. Hiking through the cloud forests of Costa Rica almost sounds so fanciful that I don’t believe that it will be a reality in just a few days. It scares me to be in an unfamiliar country that predominantly speaks a different language with people whom I do not know. 

 

The acquisition of new experiences, new friends and new tales makes all my fear go away and I know by January 16, this trip will be worth leaving my comfort zone much like my leap off the cliff.

 

In one motion, I forced my right leg off the rock and pushed off with my left. A second and a half of falling plunged me deep into the water and, as I surfaced, I almost drowned in exhilaration.