New Children’s Book about the BEN to come out 2008

Acclaimed children’s author and artist, Kristin Pratt Serafini, and Rachel Crandell are collaborating on a children’s book about El Bosque Eterno de los Niños (BEN) under the working title of The Forever Forest. Kristin joined Rachel’s group trip in March to the BEN where she began her research and paintings for the book to be published by Dawn Publications in Spring 2008. To assure the accuracy of the text and the illustrations, Kristin and Rachel conferred with experts Willow Zuchowski, Mark Wainwright, Frank Joyce, Richard Laval, Jim Wolfe, and Deb DeRossier, all biologists that live and work in Monteverde.

2007 Student Ambassadors to be Selected for Free Trip to the BEN

The three student groups that donated the most money to the BEN this year by the Earth Day deadline were 1.) Principia Lower School of St. Louis, MO, 2.) a homeschool group, Walking with Animals, in Scottsville, NY and 3.) J.E. Hinchcliffe Elementary School in O’Fallon, Illinois. Congratulations and a huge thank you to all the kids that worked hard to raise money for the forest this year. Now the student ambassadors will have to be selected, get their passports, and make their plans for a July 19 departure to Costa Rica!

Three New Board MCLUS Board Members

At our Annual Meeting on May 2 three new Board Members were elected: Tom Newmark, Terry Sheets and Gay Townsend. All three have shown deep commitment to protecting the BEN and sharing its message of conserving tropical biodiversity. Welcome Aboard!

Rachel’s Spring Trip and Presentations to Schools and Organizations

March 19-April 2 Trip to Costa Rica including 4 days at San Gerardo Field Station inside the BEN’s 54,000 acre wilderness with expert guides and endemic species!!!

April 11 Principia Middle School – St. Louis, MO

April 12 Delta Kappa Gamma Chapter Slide Show (a.m.)- St. Louis, MO

April 12 Stupp Senior Center Slide Show (p.m.) – St. Louis, MO

April 15 Decatur Audubon Society Slide Show – Decatur, IL

April 16 Johns Hill Elementary School Slide Shows – Decatur, IL

April 19 Principia Preschool Slide Show – St. Louis, MO

April 21 St Louis Rainforest Advocates presentation of “Rhythms in the Clouds” video of conservation in the cloud forest of Costa Rica at the Missouri Botanical Garden – St. Louis
April 23 Announcement to Principia Lower School winner of Student Ambassador Free trip to the BEN in July 2007
April 24 Principia Lower School slide show for Second Grade – St. Louis, MO

May 2 MCLUS Annual Board Meeting – St. Louis, MO

May 3 Canton Elementary School slide presentations – Canton, MO

May 12 Community Science Day at St. Louis Science Center – St. Louis, MO

May 15 Author Visit to Principia Lower School – St. Louis, MO

May 20 Glenridge Retirement Center – slide show – Chesterfield, MO

First Land Purchase Completed since 1995

We are thrilled to tell you that your contributions helped us reach the goal of completing the payments on the 250 acre piece of cloud forest being added to the BEN, not only on time, but a year ahead of schedule! MCL is now beginning negotiations for the next piece of land to be added to the BEN. We will continue to save and reclaim forest to fulfill our mission “to conserve, preserve and rehabilitate tropical ecosystems and their biodiversity.” This is just the beginning.

We hope to raise $100,000 through the Land Purchase and Protection Campaign in 2007. Thanks for your continued interest and support.

MCLUS Africa Trip

Join us for a Journey through Time: Namibia, Africa’s Gem from October 9-22, 2007. $4995 including roundtrip airfare from Washington DC to Namibia via Johannesburg. There are only a few spaces left. A $300 deposit would hold your spot. You’ll go to Etosha NP, the Skeleton Coast, Himba tribal people, Damara Desert, ancient Bushmen petroglyphs and Cheetah Conservation. Details on www.mclus.org for this ecotourism trip that benefits the BEN or email info@mclus.org.

New Brochures More Environmentally Friendly

We changed printers. MCLUS has distributed 10,000 brochures in the last 2 ½ years, and now we need more. We asked Murray Print Shop in St Louis to help us do it right. Their new state of the art Tech DI printing press is non-polluting and uses no alcohol and no water. It requires only ¼ as much paper for set up as the old offset press. The inks are vegetable based with no petroleum. Not only that, they ordered our 100% post consumer waste recycled paper from Mohawk Fine Papers in New York who does all their processing with wind power. When Mohawk does use wood pulp in some of their papers, it is only from Green Seal certified and Smartwood certified by Forest Stewardship Council standards. Murray Print Shop checks to see if the wood was grown in North America. Cheaper paper from Asia comes from tropical rain forests. We are delighted with our beautiful, new environmentally friendly brochures. If you would like to help spread the word about MCLUS’ efforts, we would be happy to send you some brochures.