1000 trees

Remember the 1000 bags of dirt from a month ago? 

They have grown: 

We started out giving trees to the kids from our Junior Ranger program to plant and care for at their homes:

But there are still a lot of trees to go! Next, we are working with local partners to plant the trees in areas that need restoration. Our partner organization, Si A La Vida, has a working farm with a forest that was destroyed in the 2017 hurricane Nate. So our Centro PUMA staff gathered kids from our Junior Ranger program, and partnered with kids and staff from Si A La Vida to plant trees.

They planted a total of 120 trees, plus donated an extra 30 to the farm workers to replace losses or plant elsewhere. Their farm is part of a network of forested areas that are habitat to many animals including the endangered yellow-naped amazon parrot. Every native tree here adds a positive benefit to the environment.

It was a day of very hard work in very rocky soil, so many adults came and helped the kids.

But a great experience for the kids to take part in restoration of their local habitat.

 This is still a time of great uncertainty in Nicaragua, so we are proud to be able to create tangible results while offering practical skills to our participants.

And it's fun to see these bags of dirt:

 become this beautiful nursery in a short time with a small investment.

There are still many more trees to plant this year, and we are working on ideas to fund this project next year. Thank you to Si A La Vida, New England Biolabs Foundation, and all of you for your financial and moral support!  You can donate to our project here.