On this page, we’re going to show you how you can plant a forest.

Most of us have been worried about deforestation and its impact on the world, especially on our children and their children. No matter what we do, we only seem to delay the inevitable, but it feels like we aren’t really making much headway.

In our job of growing trees, we have come upon a solution that will work; in fact, there doesn’t seem to be any way for it not to work. We at Finca Leola S.A. are in the business of growing trees for people as a means of creating permanent forest. While doing our job, we were asked if we could grow trees for people who couldn’t receive any money back. We suddenly realized what would happen if that money went to plant more trees.

The trees we grow for eventual removal are generally pioneer species. These trees are not meant to be long lived and tend to do well growing together; however, a climax forest is made up of many more different types of trees than is a pioneer forest. We transition the trees we plant from pioneer to climax species by harvesting the pioneer species and giving the money to their owners. Among those pioneer species are planted slower growing climax trees, many of which require the shade of the pioneer species.

But if the owner of the trees can’t receive the money back (or doesn’t want to), what can be done with the money from the pioneer trees that need to be removed to allow the climax trees to mature? It can buy more trees! Since the return for the wood from the pioneer trees is much more than what it costs to plant them and take care of them, this means an ever-increasing amount of trees being purchased and harvested – with a climax forest being left in its path. We call this a Tree Avalanche, and, once it is started, just like any avalanche, human forces can’t stop it.

What if, instead of planting a tree or just a few trees, you could plant a forest? By contributing to the Tree Avalanche, you personally will eventually create a forest. How fast depends on how much you give.

Let’s see what happens with only 100 trees when they are part of the Tree Avalanche.
The first year there are 100 trees, and they cover about 0.17 hectare, or 0.42 acre. In the tropics, sometime between 6 to 8 years, some of this has to be harvested as thinnings to leave space for the other trees to keep growing. These trees will have about 100 board feet each in them at thinning, and between 33 and 45 percent of the trees are harvested in the first thinning. Rare tropical woods return good money, so the forest’s profit on the trees goes to buy 80 more seedlings and land to plant them. So now there are 180 trees, covering 0.31 hectare.

About every four years, some trees have to be thinned out and are sold. Because the trees are getting bigger, the percentage of valuable wood grows too. Also, the wider the plank, the more expensive it is per board foot.

Every time we have to thin, more trees are bought and planted with the proceeds. Around year 17, an interesting thing starts to happen. The trees that were bought with the proceeds from the first thinning now have their own first thinning, which is used to buy more trees.

By year 17, the original 100 trees have increased to more than 450 trees covering about 0.8 hectare.

By year 25, there are more than 1,600 trees covering more than 2.7 hectares.

By year 58, the 100 trees have expanded to cover more than a square kilometer (100 hectares).

By year 100, the original 100 trees will have taken over 0.38 percent of the land mass of Costa Rica, or nearly 200 square kilometers (20,000 hectares). Now that's a forest!

We know that time is running out, and the more personal Tree Avalanches we get rolling, the sooner we will all breathe easier. So, are you ready to plant a forest? Click below to make your contribution, or see the top right corner of this page to donate by check.