In mid-2014, the Wilson Botantical Garden gain a new volunteer horticulturist, Dave Janas. Dave is a New York Botanical Garden-trained horticulturist with a broad background in tropical horticulture, starting with the rainforest greenhouses of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at NYBG. After several years of growing tropical plants under a glass dome in a decidedly non-tropical location, he moved to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands where he started his own nursery business and landscaping crew. There he developed an abiding passion for native plants, which was a lot less lucrative than planting Bougainvillea and Ixora everywhere, so he took a brief detour to the frozen northlands for just long enough to obtain a Master of Science degree in Conservation Biology from Antioch University New England. Determined to spend as little time away from the tropics as possible, he moved to Hawaii in order to complete his thesis requirements while working for the US Forest Service growing rare and endangered native plants for a large-scale restoration experiment. Upon completion of his contract with the federal government and desiring to work with a greater diversity of native plants, he moved to Costa Rica to set up at Las Cruces.

 Dave has many goals for the Wilson Botanical Garden; some of the most immediate include replenishing the formerly world-renowned palm collection, restoring Roberto Burle-Marx's Bromeliad Hill, and redesigning the Heliconia Garden. In addition to renovating existing gardens, Dave believes it is critical to increase the emphasis on conservation in Costa Rica by using the Garden as a platform from which to promote native plant species that would be desirable in a home or commercial landscape. He sees the Garden as an interface where the Costa Rican forest intersects with the community and where OTS-supported research reaches the public, as well as being a beautiful landscape where one can be transported away from typical daily surroundings. The Garden has the potential to be truly international-tier and Dave sees it as his mission to give it the extra push it needs.

In addition to renovating the Wilson Botanical Garden, Dave will be teaching horticulture classes periodically throughout the year; they will be on a wide variety of topics, the first of which will be: Orchids! 

On December 20, 2014, La Selva celebrated their 30th Annual Christmas Bird Count event. It was, once again, a successful event thanks to the participation of naturalists, young birdwatchers, experienced ornithologists and research scientists. To mark this special occasion, La Selva held a  symposium on various topics such as hummingbird behavior, new bird species for Costa Rica, avoiding bird crashing onto glass windows, as well as ecology and reproduction of hawks. Almost 100 participants attended the symposium and interacted with the speakers. A stunning new logo was created for the t-shirt as part of the celebration.

Encompassing a 12 km radius and area totaling 452 km2, more than 125 individuals, mostly Costa Ricans from a variety of institutions, participated in the 24-hour count. Attendees were divided into 26 groups that covered numerous terrestrial and river routes, distributed among La Selva, Tirimbina, Rara Avis, Bijagual, Lapa Verde, Selva Tica, and Puesto Ceibo 500 masl and Refugio 1070 masl which are two sites at Braulio Carrillo Altitudinal Corridor.

Some preliminary findings include: 265 field hours of observations, 380 km walked, driven, or sailed. A total of 370 species were identified, and 12,218 individual birds were observed. This brings the cumulative list up to 528 species since the first count in 1985. New species recorded for the region included the Band-tailed Pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata) and the Tropical Mockingbird (Mimus gilvus). These observations support the historical long-term database of 30 years.

The final results will be posted here: http://www.ots.ac.cr/cbc_laselva  

Bats and Piper

This OTS "fundamentals course" is an intensive, field-based experience in tropical biology for graduate students. Since the 1960s, this classic OTS course has trained ecologists and evolutionary biologists using an active learning approach, which engages students in a fun and fast-paced research environment. With guidance from expert scientists, students will gain experience in critical thinking, research design, data analysis, analytical tools, science communication, ecological modeling, and collaborative research-all in the beautiful tropical setting of Costa Rica. We guarantee you will come away from the course a better scientist with new skills and ideas to carry into your future research.