“For as long as I can remember, I’ve just wanted to plant trees.”

     By a circuitous route guided by the mists of fate and the gleaming star of will, the master glass-blower, former Grateful Dead parking lot vendor of jewelry and hand-blown glass, co-owner and founding father of the Osa’s oldest tour-guide company, and one of Puerto Jiménez’s most enduring enigmas, Mr. Tom Boylan—aka Tom Kayak —has turned his desire into a lush garden of tropical hardwood seedlings, flowering shrubs, fruit trees, ornamentals, and flowers blushing hues that span the visible spectrum.  Not bad, five months out of the gate.

     Situated on 103 hectares of land bounding the western and southwestern margins of Puerto Jimenez (see aerial photo), Herrara Botanical Garden and Reforestation Project (HBG) is an enterprise with a mission, and a mission statement embracing seemingly incompatible concepts, such as:  reforestation, habitat restoration, eco-responsibility, land development, and profitability.  “It’s an experiment,” explains Kayak.  “This is a model for how to make the land pay for itself without cutting everything down to sell wood, run cattle, or plant rice.  And twenty years from now,” he prophesies with a squint toward the horizon, “there is going to be a wildlife bridge connecting the Platanares wetlands to Corcovado Park and tapirs on this side of the peninsula.  And this time, maybe people won’t eat them into extinction.” 

     Herrara Botanical Garden is administered by Tom and his wife of two years, Karen Herrara Beita and includes capital backing from Marcos Herrara Parrales, the property owner.  HBG has one full-time gardener and two part-time laborers and depends upon dedicated volunteers for clearing the secondary scrub known as tacotal, making pathways and nature trails, and planting.  The property is divided into a series of “gardens”, small tracts that are dedicated to a related botanical theme, such as medicinal herbs, birds of paradise (haliconia), or dedicated to an individual or group contributor, all connected by well-groomed nature trails.  To date, gardens have been reserved and are being planted by the following individuals or groups:  Bryan from Rainbow Lodge, Kimberly and Chris from Matapalo, Brad and Nikki from Tierra de Milagros, Marco Antonio, and Bosque Del Cabo.   HBG offers a variety of inducements for potential foundation contributors.   Volunteers get a sweet deal as well, including housing, grandfathered inclusion in PJ’s ex-pat “in-crowd,” a little food, and recreational use of kayaks and other Escondido Trex equipment, contingent upon seasonal demands.

     It’s a late start at 6:00 a.m., and the sky threatens rain as Kayak walks me through the property and explains the idea.  “I want to have basically every specie of tree indigenous to the Osa represented here.”   He has about 200 so far and only 650 or so more to go.  “The animal autobahn is the creek [Estero Pueblo Viejo], so what we’re trying to do is plant fruit trees and hardwoods moving away from the creek to draw the animals into the gardens.”  Sub-optimal installation of drainage culverts on the Platanares road two years ago, however, has affected the hydrology of the property adversely.  The natural tidal flux is impeded by the under-sized culverts that were installed.  One immediately palpable effect of this hydrologic disruption has been the increase in mosquito population on the wooded back side of the property.  “I’d really like to see a group of us come together to fix the drainage,” he glowers.  “And soon.  Otherwise, it’s going to eventually destroy the natural wetlands habitat, which is bad for everybody.”   The exotic animal count on the property to date includes a grisson, a fiery-billed Aricari, and an ocelot, caught dining on a raccoon.  White-faced capuchins and squirrel monkeys are daily apparitions on the wooded back side of the property, along with the standard raccoons, caymans, boas, parrots, macaws, chakalakas, and the occasional anteater.  Tom has peddled his bicycle past the property he now administers for years on his way between work in town and his former home in Pueblo Viejo and began bird-watching tours on the property last year for clients of Crocodile Bay, located across the road from the HBG main entrance.  “There just wasn’t that much of a variety of birds, here,” he frowns.  “Not like all the stuff you see not one mile away in the mangroves or the estuary.  I figured this property could be planted in such a way that all kinds of birds would come to feed as well as to nest.  There goes a wood rail, now.  Already, I average 30 species per tour on this property, compared with 15 just last year.” 

     “Here’s the deal:  if we can generate an income from entrance fees, tours, donations, and from the sale of exotic seeds for making jewelry and for planting, then it’s a land-use model that provides return-on-investment through environmental restoration rather than desecration.  When I saw all the forest that was cut to run cattle in Matapalo when I first came down here, it made me so sick, I quit eating meat for 6 years.  I’ve gotten over it now, though.  I love animals—they’re delicious!”