R.A.I.N. is a publicly-supported charitable organization organized under section 501 (C) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code for scientific and educational purposes. Contributions to R.A.I.N. will be tax deductible to the extent allowed under the tax code. For additional information or to make a contribution, please write or call R.A.I.N. at 2943 Mountain Shadow Road, Boise, Idaho 83702, or telephone 208-345-2244
The board of directors of R.A.I.N.:
Beatrice Black, CPA and President of Bea's Business Products and Gifts, Boise,ID
The Rev. Mark T. Davis, First Presbyterian Church, Boise, Idaho
Wayne Jensen, President, J & J Farms Inc, Genesee, Idaho
Overseeing daily operations of R.A.I.N. is executive director Nancy Adrian, a retired banking executive, who volunteers her time and efforts.
Purpose: R.A.I.N. was organized to build grassroots support for scientific research and education in problems and solutions for tropical deforestation. Our first project seeks to develop practical, usable, cheap methods based on solid science to address the related problems of deforestation and erosion in the New World tropics.
Methods: The first project in the field of restoration ecology is the Tropical Rainforest Project underway on a private farm in southern Costa Rica, with Dr. F. Lynn Carpenter, Professor of Ecology, University of California at Irvine (UCI) leading the effort as Principal Investigator.
Tropical Rainforest Project: In 1992 using her own money, Dr. Carpenter purchased the most eroded farm she could find in southern Costa Rica. The land had been cleared of primary rain forest in the 1950s when the southern county of Coto Brus was being settled. Over the intervening years, it had been intensively farmed, converted to coffee plantation, and finally, as fertility diminished, the coffee was removed in order to use the pasture for cattle. Cattle trails covered the steep hills and enabled erosion to expose roughly 50% of the subsoil.
In 1993, U.S. volunteers and native workers laid out the first blocked experiments designed by Dr. Carpenter and her academic collaborators, and planted the target native timber tree, Terminalia amazonia, called amarillon by the local Spanish-speaking population. This tree produces semi-hard wood, used in Costa Rica in construction and preferred for its rich golden color brushed with red grain, like "reverse redwood." Each of the five original blocks included eight treatments to investigate which treatments might encourage the growth of amarillon. If the hardy amarillon could grow, perhaps eroded pastures might be restored to biodiversity and fertility.
Investigations from 1993-1999 have examined the growth of amarillon when intermixed with legume trees, beans, mulch, chemical fertilizer, lime (calcium carbonate), or pasture grasses. Soil structure has been analyzed, as has soil chemistry. Additional experiments have studied growth of other rare and endangered native trees.
Future directions: Dr. Carpenter has reported an association between increased soil degradation through erosion and diminishment of a soil fungus called mycorrhizal fungi. Little is known about what specific mycorrhizal fungi are associated with which specific tropical trees. DNA fingerprinting may reveal preferences and associations between trees and fungi, with implications for forest restoration in the Neotropics. Given sufficient funding, Dr. Carpenter plans to use techniques of molecular biology such as DNA fingerprinting to discover the role of specific fungi in restoring ruined tropical pasture.
R.A.I.N. will continue its efforts to attract funding from individuals and granting agencies. All contributions to R.A.I.N. go to support the Tropical Rainforest Project, with no deductions for overhead or administrative expense. To date, R.A.I.N. has no salaried employees and the executive director personally pays office expenses and any travel expenses related to the project--unique in the world of nonprofits. We are committed to applying at least 95% of our contributions to the projects we support.
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