Las Cruces Biological Station & Wilson Botanical Garden

Overview

Description

Enjoy Costa Rica's premier botanical garden and Central America's richest plant collection, in the enchanting and remote southern zone of Costa Rica. This Field Station is home to the Wilson Botanical Garden featuring beautifully diverse plantings of tropical and subtropical ornamentals, representatives of unusual plant families and rare and endangered plants from Costa Rica and elsewhere. It also boasts remarkable collections of cycads, tree ferns, aroids, bromeliads, gingers, heliconias, marantas, and palms. More than 1,000 genera in 212 plant families can be seen along trails that wind around palm-covered hillsides, through agave and lily beds, under rain forest canopy, through banana and heliconia groves, or to strategic overlooks on the rolling grounds.

The Wilson Botanical Garden is part of "La Amistad Biosphere Reserve" that encompasses 472,000 hectares of park-land and buffer zones centered in the southern Talamanca mountain range, in Costa Rica's south pacific. Observe the richness of the tropics: native plants and animals, including nearly 400 bird species, more than 800 types of butterflies, an abundance of mammals (at least 38 species of bats), and an impressive diversity of reptiles and amphibians.

The Station serves as the principal center in the region for teaching, research, and on-site environmental education, as well as visitors who have a unique opportunity to experience tropical nature and to learn about it in a place where scientists and students from around the world come to research and study.

Making a Difference

Number of employees: 31

Percentage of local employees: 95%

In Las Cruces, some of the benefits provided are:

• the hiring of labor,
• purchasing from local providers,
• environmental education in local schools,
• volunteer work in the community,
• provision of services for other hotels and members of the tourism sector, and
• how to promote and conserve nature: The OTS has been working for more than 40 years on the conservation of the tropics and biodiversity in Costa Rica, making Las Cruces one of the premier private protected areas in the nation (since 1953).

The scientific contributions made by the OTS and its different stations have helped strengthen knowledge about the natural history of Costa Rica and are an integral part of a national effort to preserve the biodiversity of the country. Examples of these include the renowned book on Costa Rica Natural History by Daniel Janzen; La Selva Ecology and Natural History of a Neotropical Rain Forest by Lucinda McDade, Kamalit Bawa, Henrey Hespenheide, and Gary Hartshorn; a recently published book on the Amphibians and Reptiles of La Selva, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean Slope by Craig Guyer and Maureen Donnelly; and more than 2,655 scientific publications.

Rates

$51 – $75

Rates include lodging and three meals per day.

For more information about rates, please visit:

• www.threepaths.co.cr/lascruces_rates.shtml (available in English).

Getting There

Nearest international airport: San José (SJO)

Nearest local/national airport: Golfito (GLF)

Travel time to nearest airport: 45 mintutes

We are 178 miles from San Jose (4.5 hours) in San Vito de Cotobrus.

Additional Information

OTS is a non-profit consortium that includes around 65 universities and research institutions around the world. OTS was founded in 1963 to provide leadership in education, research and the responsible use of natural resources in the tropics. To address this mission, OTS conducts graduate and undergraduate education, facilitates research, actively participates in tropical forest conservation, and manages three biological stations in Costa Rica: La Selva, Las Cruces and Palo Verde.

OTS and eco-tourism: Promoting and supporting a scientific and environmental consciousness, with more than 10,000 eco tourist visiting our three biological stations in Costa Rica through our Natural History Program (Three Paths), OTS is focusing to ensure that natural history visitors have a high quality experience and learn about the amazing natural history of the tropical forest, its flora and fauna , through activities such as: Guided Natural History Walks, Bird-watching, Night Tours, short term projects and hands-on science activities, volunteer projects, River boat tours, Lectures, etc. These activities are just part of the experiential learning that our biological stations can offer, which fulfills the mission of enhancing the appreciation of nature and ecology, the understanding of need for preservation and the support of conservation measures.

Part of what the OTS is looking for in the ecotourism promotion, is to benefit the local communities, and this has been accomplished from the moment the OTS bought the 3 stations.

Date This Information Was Provided

July 2009.

Photo courtesy of Las Cruces Biological Station & Wilson Botanical Garden, Costa Rica, for SustainableTrip.org.