Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
green honeycreeper and blue dacnis as they slurp ripe bananas from a sus-
pended feeder. (Inga, or colloquially
guabo
, plants are important neotropical
members of the mimosa family that produce seeds in variously shaped pods.
The melastome plant family is one of the world's most diverse groups, includ-
ing shrubs, trees, and lianas.) Steve and his wife of forty-two years, Suzie, are
good neighbors to a stunning array of life that nudges against the wilderness
of Chirripó and La Amistad national parks.
Adjusting his yard to benei t nature is Steve's passion. Unlike the desires
most of us pursue, this one did not come with instructions. Instead, much of
what Steve practices he has invented. For example, restoring plants to a trop-
ical fen (a small wetland that features a mat of vegetation l oating atop water
fed by an underground spring) i rst required that the thick turf mat be killed
and then replanted with native sedges. Simply removing the turf would de-
stroy the l oating mat's integrity, so Steve and his helpers tried covering the
area with black plastic in hopes of suf ocating the deep-rooted pasture grass.
That strategy worked, and reestablishment of the fen was successful. Today,
I watch a northern waterthrush, just back from its breeding grounds in the
United States, move among giant prayer plants in a grass-free wetland.
Practice has also taught Steve patience. Rather than directly planting the
trees he hopes will eventually constitute his forest, he mimics the natural pro-
cess of tropical succession. He starts his forest with weedy trees that germi-
nate and grow quickly through pasture grass. As they grow, they shade and
kill the grass. With the grass under control, Steve works on the understory
plants and slower-growing trees. He disturbs his pioneer forest by girdling
prolii c melastomes, leaving their skeletons for woodpeckers and allowing
light to reach soil he has planted with a great variety of native oaks, cecropias,
i gs, aguacatillos, tree ferns, and heliconias. These plants come from Steve's
workshop—a self-built greenhouse where he tries to germinate seeds and nur-
ture seedlings he has collected. To improve his craft, he experiments with
