Dr. Lilly Briggs is up to something very wild in her new digs at Finca Cantaros: she’s working to create The Children’s Forest of Coto Brus — or, perhaps a little more melodically speaking, El Bosque de los Ninos de Coto Brus.

We talk endlessly about our Detectives de Aves environmental education program from the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology. In fact, Lilly is one of the co-authors of this curriculum, Lesson 9 of which is a Community Project.

This Flows So Well

In the first two weeks of July, students from six participating schools chose to plant trees as their Community Project — so they, and we, are part of the reforestation effort that will ultimately create The Children’s Forest.

Alexandrina is all smiles with her ‘personal’ part of the future forest. Photo by Peter Wendell.

The staked out young trees have been GPS-ed by SVBC President Peter Wendell and every student was photographed with his/her planting. Lilly is encouraging them to come back whenever possible to check on the tree’s growth and — one day — to bring their children and grandchildren to see their trees in the future mature forest.

Each school heard a talk on the history of Finca Cantaros, given by former owner and reforestation leader Gail Hewson Hull, followed by a discussion of the importance of trees for healthy environments and habitats, and, lastly, a brief demonstration of tree planting techniques.

Escuela Copal from Concepcion; Director Jairo Murillo accompanied his students. Photo by Peter Wendell.

The students fanned out in the pasture directly east of F. Cantaros to find their own personal sapling that they then planted with shared shovels, big smiles and great vigor!

As of the end of July 2019, 110 trees were planted by an equal number of students.

To date, participating schools include Escuelas Santa Rita, San Marcos near Sereno, Copal in Concepcion, Los Angeles, Linda Vista and Gonzalo Acuña in Sabalito. We will update this list as the forest grows!