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E-CANOPY                                                                                                                                                  December 2009

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IN THIS ISSUE
Holiday Gifts from OTS
Panam� BioCurso
REDD Workshops Update
Improved Facilities at Las Cruces
OTS Auction Rescheduled

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Holiday Gifts from OTS
Give a gift that shows your love of the tropics!

Gift MembershipsLS Frog
Consider giving a gift that will really make a difference this year - a 1-year gift membership to OTS. We will send a special card* to the person honored to let them know that you have made a very important gift in their honor, to help us teach, research and conserve the biodiversity of the tropics.

 
To make a gift in honor of someone or renew your own membership, CLICK HERE.
Please submit gift membership requests no later than December 18, 2009.
 
Plant-A-TreePlanting Trees
With a gift of $100, you can plant a tree in Costa Rica in someones name. Your planted tree will include a name plate printed with the name your provide.
 
CLICK HERE to Plant-A-Tree in honor or memory of  someone special.  Please include the following information in the comments section:
Plant-A-Tree Program
In Honor of: (name) -- exactly as you would like it to appear on the name plate.

OTS MerchandiseMulti Leaf Bag
Do your holiday shopping at the new OTS online store! You can purchase items with the classic OTS logo as well as some unique OTS graphics on them. All proceeds from this store will be directed to the OTS Core Fund, supporting students and researchers in the tropics.
 
CLICK HERE to shop online now.
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Additional shipping charges for international orders may apply for merchandise. Shipping charges are determined by CafePress.com.
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Attention Birders! Upcoming BioCursos Trip:
Panam�-Chiriqu� Highlands and
Barro Colorado Island in the Panam� Canal
March 1 - 5, 2010
 

Panama

OTS is offering an exclusive tour for birding enthusiasts into Western Panama and the Smithsonian's Barrio Colorado Island research station on the Panama Canal.  Organized through the OTS BioCursos program, which provide adult education packages in Costa Costa, this one-week trip starts shortly after the OTS annual meetings to be held this year in southern Costa Rica at Las Cruces and the Wilson Botanical Garden. 

Birding will be the theme of the day
Photo by Merris Mosdaleas the group travels across the border and down into Panama.   Bird enthusiasts, plant lovers, hummingbird and butterfly aficionados -- whether you are a part of the OTS boards or part of the friends, alumni or research community -- are welcome to join us. Everyone will be thrilled to discover the spectacular biodiversity of the region!  Please see our link for additional information.  Do know, we will be happy to work with you in making your travel arrangements to Costa Rica and Panama. 

Full Description


Cost per person:
$1499
 
Contact Jonathan Giles at 919-684-6188 or [email protected].

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U.S. Decision Makers Participants Provide Input on REDD Policies

Of the issues currently being discussed in the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference of the Parties, the greatest progress is being made in the development of a global agreement to slow down deforestation in order to curb climate change.  It is generally agreed that up to 20% of man-made annual emissions in carbon dioxide result from destroying forests, primarily those in the tropics. Hence, to achieve the target of no more than a 2�C increase in global temperature, halting or dramatically slowing deforestation is critical.  REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) represents an effort to place a value on carbon stored in forests and offer monetary compensation to developing countries to reduce deforestation and invest in low-carbon development strategies. The U.S. House of Representatives already included a REDD provision in their climate/energy bill passed in May 2009, which provides for a U.S. federal cap-and-trade program that could create a significant role for forest carbon as a source of international offsets for domestic compliance.
 
As a pREDD Workshopart of its U.S. Environmental Decision Maker Series, OTS has partnered with the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions (NI) of Duke University to offer a series of courses and roundtables on the scientific, technical, economic, and political concepts behind REDD, and the ramification of international forest carbon policies to the United States and to the tropics. In August and October, two 4-day courses were held at La Selva Biological Station for a couple dozen Senate and House staff and officials from the Congressional Research Service, Department of Agriculture, Department of State, U.S. Agency for International Development, Forest Service, and Congressional Budget Office. The courses included lectures from international experts, in-the-field visits to ongoing rainforest research and conservation projects, hands-on practical exercises, and discussion sessions. Because researchers have been investing the forest-carbon cycle at La Selva in Costa Rica for decades, the station was the perfect venue to provide exposure to many of the scientific issues of forest-carbon cycling and forest monitoring through remote sensing. Moreover, as Costa Rica has pioneered many of the innovative environmental service payment programs in the tropics, participants had the opportunity to meet land owners and investigate first-hand the successes and shortfalls of such programs.

A more targeted roundtable event on selected REDD issues was held in Washington, DC, in November.  A third course in Costa Rica is tentatively planned for March 2010 as well as further roundtables in Washington, DC.
These activities were made possible through generous support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. For more information on course presentations and relevant readings, please contact Salley Gardner ([email protected]).

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Improved Facilities at Las Cruces Provides Researchers and Students with Greater Availability

In 2007, OTS received a grant award from NSF to construct and install new buildings and equipment at the Las Cruces Biological Station to help provide adequate space and laboratory equipment to meet the needs of an expanding population of researchers and students.
 
This grant increased housing availability, which has alleviated congestion throughout the year for students and researchers - and in particular during the summer peak season.  These improvements also permitted the station to increase the size of the NSF-sponsored NAPIRE (Native American and Pacific Islander Research Experience) program and house several additional researchers at the station.
 
Student Housing

With this funding, the former ground floor
Bathrooms After offices of the building were remodeled and transformed to dorm rooms in order to house an additional 10 students in two rooms. An additional room was remodeled to house bus drivers and visiting OTS personnel with capacity for up to three people. With these upgrades, student capacity for the building was increased from 37 beds to 47 beds (18 downstairs; 29 upstairs).  In addition, the building now has eight bathrooms and eight showers.
 
Researcher Housing
Construction on three new researcher
Cabins Aftercabins began in March 2008 after architectural plans were completed. All cabins have a single bedroom (with a bunk bed and a single bed), a private bathroom, wireless internet access and are equipped with IP telephones. They were first made available for researcher use in December 2008 and have been hugely popular with long-term researchers.  The increase in number of cabins helped to alleviate some of the researcher congestion during the peak summer months of field research at Las Cruces
 
Cyberinfrastructure
Bandwidth at the station was increased from
IT Rack128kbps to 2MB via a direct line of site connection with a private internet provider This facilitated the overhaul of the telephone exchange system at the station. Wireless access coverage was increased to include all main buildings and cabins in the station. This upgrade has dramatically improved the usability of the station for researchers and facilitated the work of station staff. It has also allowed us to upgrade other aspects of database management and improve the resources we provide researchers including: web-accessible meteorological data that is now uploaded in real-time (www.ots.ac.cr/meteoro), the new Las Cruces Digital Herbarium (www.ots.ac.cr/herbarium), and improved GIS services at the station.
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OTS Auction Rescheduled
 
The second OTS online auction has been postponed until February 2010.

We will continue accepting items until the auction opens in February. The auction will coincide with our Annual Meeting in Costa Rica. We continue to look for items that would be of interest to the OTS community at large:
  • travel and adventure opportunities
  • scientific publications of interest
  • one-of-a-kind experiences (i.e. a dinner with a special guest)
  • artwork
  • collectibles
OTS LeafDONATE AN AUCTION ITEM ONLINE TODAY

As a non-profit organization, all auction donations are considered tax-deductible according to applicable US tax laws.  If you have an item you are considering donating to the auction, please contact Cathleen Lemoine at OTS, 919-684-6969, or e-mail [email protected].
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