Local
Couple Blends Environmental Concerns, Capitalism in Tree Farm
Below is the complete text of the article.
The Daily Reporter - Friday, April 24, 1992
By Kristi R. Ferguson
Money does not grow on trees, but profits
and tropical lumber can take root in harmony with Mother Earth.
At least that's the idea behind a Columbus
couple's tropical tree farm under development in Costa Rica. Steve and Sherry
Brunner call it a "free enterprise solution" to the destruction of rain forests.
"In order for environmental projects
to win, you have to make money," Brunner said. "Instead of profit being a
dirty word, it can be positive."
The Brunners' first tropical hardwood
seedlings moved this month from greenhouses to fields on a 1,200-acre cattle ranch they
purchased in June along the Barú River. The couple's goal is to plant 1 million
trees in the next eight years and then begin a continuing cycle of selective harvesting
and replanting every four years.
Rain forests are a rapidly diminishing
bastion of flora and fauna limited to a band of habitats along the equator through South
America, Africa and Asia. The trees help clean the world's air and nurture the most
varied ecosystems on the globe.
Scientists estimate more than 50 million
acres - an area twice the size of Ohio - is deforested annually. Rain forests are
clearcut for lumber and the land is leveled for livestock pasture and commercial
development.
Tropical hardwoods like teak and
purpleheart are used in furniture, cabinets, flooring, veneers and specialty items like
cutlery handles, brush backs, gun stocks and musical instruments. The United States
imported $2.2 billion of the woods in 1991, according to a trade publication cited by the
Brunners.
Brunner said he has watched lush green
hills of Costa Rica become barren and brown during the last 18 years as he traveled the
area managing oceanfront property for a group of investors. He said the
environmental horror and financial implications of rain forest destruction just merged in
his mind one day and he committed "thousands and thousands" of dollars to develop
the tropical tree farm.
"Out of every problem grows an
opportunity," Brunner said. "In addition to the business side of this, we
just love nature and the beauty."
The Brunners said experts predict tropical
rain forests eventually will be consumed and unavailable as a habitat for animals, as a
source to help clean the air and as a supply for hardwoods. Environmentally friendly
tropical tree farms can help.
Tropical hardwood trees cultivated on a
farm can yield 10 times the marketable lumber from natural forest timber because they grow
faster and more uniformly, the Brunners said. Tropical lumber exports increased from
4 million cubic meters in 1950 to 70 million cubic meters in the 1980s, and are projected
to more than double by the end of the decade, they said.
It is unlikely enough tree farms ever can
be established to keep the price of tropical woods from spiraling out of sight, the
Brunners said. Estimated net profits for teak harvests range from $3,995 for 40
8-year old trees to $103,792 for 11 25-year-old trees, they said (sic) - (TATF note:
$103,000 is actually the projected cumulative return for 100 teak trees over a 25 year
thinning and harvest rotation).
"For us, the plantation is a unique
combination," Mrs. Brunner said. "I'm not saying we'll solve the problem
of the rain forests, but it's a step in the right direction."
The Brunners are sole owners and U.S. sales
coordinators for the tropical tree farm corporation. An attorney and staff of about
15 on-site farm workers manage the business from Costa Rica.
The couple's environmental conscience is
not limited to providing a tropical hardwood alternative for profit. Brunner said
teak farms have been around for a century, but most owners do not painstakingly follow
environmentally safe land-use, weather, soil, water and recycling programs.
Hundreds of flowering and fruit trees
destroyed when the land was turned into a cattle farm decades ago are being replanted on
the Brunners' farm for natural habitat and to protect stream banks from eroding. The
couple is using composted sugar cane waste from a processing plant for natural fertilizer
and nitrogen-producing plants instead of chemical additives to replace nutrients depleted
from the soil by crops.
The Brunners also are following Costa
Rica's forest service recommendations for planting tropical hardwoods and providing the
government a test plot on their farm. In addition, the couple launched a hands-on
education program to teach school children near their farm about its environmental and
economic philosophies.
"Our hope is that the children and
their families will learn to love trees, that there is value in planting trees,"
Brunner said.
In the United States, Mrs. Brunner is
developing a slide program about the rain forests and their tree farm. They plan to
promote its use as an environmental education presentation for public schools and
community groups.
"The more we got involved with this
project, the more we got excited," Brunner said. "We decided we could be
doing this for people up North that would have no other way of being involved."
Mrs. Brunner said promoting her and her
husband's venture in tropical hardwoods combines the two themes she has longed for in one
career. She had found work in public relations with the Girl Scouts rewarding but
not very profitable, and then the opposite as she became a sales representative with
Amerestate Inc.
"It has always been a dream of mine to
combine those two feelings in one job," she said.
Her husband, who has a background in law
and real estate, said his interest in trees can be traced to childhood. He is
originally from Mansfield, the home of Johnny Appleseed, and recalled school lessons about
the historical character.
"It sounds corny, but I've always had
a dream to plant trees," Brunner said. |
