The Tree Bank project required nearly a year of planning and negotiation before anything actually occurred on the ground. Here, Chris, the Sangha’s President (left), Tommy, our first Tree Bank Project Manager (blue t-shirt), and Gaspar, President of the Agroforestry Association of Los Cerezos (our local partner organization) and our current Project Director, meet to discuss planting strategies. Basically, we were figuring out what kind of land would be available for tree-planting and how the plantings would fit with local farming practices. That’s Mari looking over Gaspar’s shoulder. (For a local Who’s Who, view the People slide show.) (June 2006)

One of Chris’s planning diagrams, drawn with magic markers from Tommy’s supply of kids’ art materials. (June 2006)

The real work began in May 2006, after we secured about an acre of more or less level space—a rare commodity in our region—to construct the Tree Bank nursery. Here, participant farmers are installing shade-cloth support posts in part of the property. The posts are made from a species of tree that has especially rot-resistant wood. (June 2006)

After the posts are set, cement is mixed to set anchors for the cords from which the shade cloth will be stretched. Some of the posts are set in cement too, but we try to use cement sparingly because its weight makes it expensive to transport into our remote and mountainous project area. (June 2006)

A view from the adjacent schoolyard showing the functioning part of the nursery property. In the foreground is our potting shed; behind that is the partly shaded container yard. Most of the nursery property is not yet in use. (February 2007)

Another view of the potting shed, with Tommy setting out some frames that will hold seedling containers. Tree Bank farmers will prepare a soil mix, pour the mix into containers, and set them into the frames. (February 2007)

Our seed is sown in these twin germination beds, which are filled with sand hauled from a nearby stream. After they are established, the seedlings are transplanted into pots and grown out to planting size. As you can see, the germination beds are completely enveloped in shade cloth. (The hole is a door.) The shade cloth serves the obvious function of diminishing the sun’s intensity and the less obvious but equally important function of keeping hungry fowl at bay. (December 2006)

A section of a germination bed containing citrus seedlings. They may not look like much, but they are a significant community resource. For the poor families with whom we work, a source of free fruit-tree stock can offer a major benefit. Just a few heavily bearing trees can add value to a farm. (January 2007)

Matt (black t-shirt) and Tommy demonstrate some of our sophisticated watering equipment—plastic bottles with holes punched in them. The bottle technique is a cheap and effective way to sprinkle the germination beds. (February 2007)

As with our other fruit trees, this cacao was sprouted from seed collected from one of our members’ farms. Cacao is the little tree whose seeds are used to make cocoa and chocolate. Almost all of our Dominican partners grow cacao or coffee, or both. We’re working on plans to get their production into the US market. (January 2007)

The pots in front of Gaspar contain coffee seedlings. Our Tree Bank nursery is designed to provide stock for four types of plantings: tree crops such as coffee, cocoa, and citrus; short-rotation, low-value timber (Honduran pine); long-rotation, high-value, native timber that is cut on a sustainable basis so that it provides long-term ecological value; and conservation reserves, which are not cut at all. (February 2007)

Seedlings of the native Hispaniolan pine (Pinus occidentalis), a tree that is being heavily logged in our region and that has been red-listed as near-threatened by the World Conservation Union. The pine’s seeds are important food for some of the island’s birds. At least one species, the endangered Hispaniolan crossbill (Loxia megaplaga), feeds exclusively on the seeds of this species. (January 2007)

Hundreds of Hispaniolan pine seedlings take in the early morning sun. As at our DC-area nursery, native species at the Tree Bank nursery are propagated from seed that participants collect from local wild trees, to preserve the genetics of local native-tree populations. (We also accept some seed donations from parks within our region, as long as the seed is wild.) (December 2007)

Hispaniolan pine seedlings now line the fence at the Tree Bank nursery. (December 2007)

Seedlings of the royal palm (Roystonea hispaniolana), a very tall native palm, for use in our conservation reserve plantings. As with the Hispaniolan pine, this palm is important to the island’s birds; many native bird species feed on its fruit. (February 2007)

Wild-collected seed of West Indian mahogany (Swietenia mahogani). This is by far the most valuable hardwood native to Hispaniola; it is listed as endangered by the World Conservation Union and has been nearly extirpated from our region. We are very lucky to have located several wild seed trees. (February 2007)

Mahogany seedlings ready to plant. Wood from just one good mahogany log, if prepared and sold properly, could earn enough to build a house for a newly wed farm couple or to provide a first-rate education for a farmer’s grandchild. Mahogany seedlings are long-term investments but the payoffs could be very substantial indeed. (December 2007)

A mahogany sapling in one of our native forest plantings on a local farm. The woman is showing off the mahogany, which is the sapling directly in front of her. Our farmers are proud of their plantings—as they should be! While the saplings are still young and not yet casting shade, this planting, like most of them, is also being used as a polyculture plot, to grow a range of annual and perennial crops. (June 2009)

Wild-collected seed of native false cedar (Cedrela odorata). See the next slide for more on this species. (December 2007)

This false cedar sprouted from a seed sown just 18 months before this picture was taken. It now has a home in Gaspar’s conservation reserve planting. False cedar is widespread in the New World tropics. It’s not related to the true cedars, but like them, it has aromatic, insect-resistant wood. (February 2007)

The same tree less than two and a half years later. This species grows fast! (June 2009)

This is the seed of a native tree that Dominicans call “roble,” or oak. It’s not a true oak–it’s actually a catalpa (Catalpa longissima)–but as the common name suggests, it’s a valuable timber species. (February 2007)

This year-old Catalpa longissima sapling, planted out on Gaspar’s land, seems to be doing well. Like mahogany and false cedar, this species plays a double role in our work: it produces valuable timber and it occurs naturally in our region, so farmers can use it for both conservation reserves and native timber woodlots. (December 2007)

Cosme Damian Quezada, or “Comito” as he’s usually known, and Gaspar go over the procedures for the seedling census that they’re about to perform on the newly planted woodlot of Fausto “Eduardo” Mateo. (That’s Eduardo on the right and Comito on the left.) In the Tree Bank’s compensation program, a census is required to calculate the annual per-stem payment that is made to owners of native timber plantings. Without these modest payments, our farmers could not afford to take cropland, even degraded cropland, out of conventional production. (December 2007)

Gaspar (foreground) and Comito survey the plot that will become Comito’s conservation reserve. The plot adjoins a little patch of riparian (stream-side) forest. That's the stand of trees behind Comito; those trees are also on his land. In addition to supporting new plantings, we are developing a plan to offer farm credit in exchange for protecting patches of extant native forest like that. The system would give our farmers a way to “invest” in their remaining forest fragments. (December 2007)

Comito and Gaspar consider another section of Comito’s two-acre plot, which he once used as pasture for his cow and horse. Since he’s now keeping those animals elsewhere, he plans to plant more than 900 native trees here. (December 2007)

Part of the area shown in the previous slide, about a year and a half later. The first planting has gone in and the saplings are really coming along! (June 2009)

A very steep slope, currently planted with rows of sugarcane, partly to get a little value from the site, and partly to prevent erosion. The owner wants to convert this area into a Tree Bank planting. As with Comito's planting, this site adjoins a little riparian forest—a common scenario on our farms. The proximity of the native forest makes our plantings more valuable to wildlife than they would otherwise be. If you look carefully, you should be able to make out Tommy and Gaspar at the top of the slope. (June 2009)

Gaspar walks along a badly eroded section of land that he plans to return to native forest. Tree Bank restoration efforts target marginal land like this, which is no longer suitable for traditional agriculture. Instead of just allowing sites like this to erode into the nearest stream, the Tree Bank pays farmers to plant native trees on them. Replanting stabilizes the soil, creates more wildlife habitat, and tends to improve fertility of adjoining land. (December 2007)

A planting of Hispaniolan pine—one of our first six plantings—installed on land adjoining our nursery in the fall and winter of 2007. (December 2007)

The same planting a year and a half later, when the trees were about five feet high. As our plantings grow, so do the benefits that they confer—benefits to both the land and the people. (June 2009)