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Why 300 Acres is a Big Deal

In most places, 300 acresprobably isn’t a big deal. Where I live in the northeastern US, a 300-acre tract of protected forest is common. Lessthan a drop in a really big bucket. There are islands in the Caribbean where conservation is aggressive: 60%of the US Virgin Island of St. John is protected, and the addition of a300-acre reserve there might barely be noticed.

However, in the DominicanRepublic, every smidgen of land that can be protected adds up to what willeventually, probably, turn out to not be enough. Presently, the DR has officially designated 70 protectedareas. 24 of them have personnel (Ottenwalder 2000). Management plans have been written for 10, 6 of which havebeen partially implemented (Latta, Rimmer, Wiley, et al, 2006). Land withinthese “protected” areas is often illegally logged and farmed due to a lack ofenforcement. Additionally, theremaining privately held forest is dwindling, giving way to lucrative cattlegrazing. Thus, there is obvious value in protecting even the smallest amount ofhabitat.

The 300 acres we aretargeting as a reserve will have a positive impact on the larger plantation’sproduction acreage, as well. Bestmanagement practices, many of which are already in place, and the owners’strong conservation ethic will in essence protect the entire 1,100-acreplantation; all of the habitats within it will benefit.

An important aspect of thereserve will be to educate and introduce younger generations of Dominicans tothe value of conservation, and assurrounding landowners are educated as well, the idea of managing for wildlifewill become more accepted and practiced. This type of model follows closely on the heels of the newly establishedReserva Privida Zorzal, a 1000-acre conservation area set aside through effortsby Chris Rimmer and others to protect the threatened Bicknell’s Thrush.

If enough people begin torealize the importance of protecting the winter habitats of our US migrants,perhaps more support will go towards keeping many more than 300 forested acres,forested. In fact, at this week’sUN Climate Summit, one of the big ideas is for developed countries to paydeveloping countries not to cut their forests. In this project, we don’t haveto pay anyone to do it, we just have to do it!

","title":"Why 300 Acres is a Big Deal","backers_only":false,"published_at":"2014-09-24T16:37:27.000-07:00","view_count":215,"publish_on":null,"url":"https://experiment.com/u/MAyLIQ","image":null,"project_title":"Saving Tropical Migratory Bird Habitat ","project_link":"https://experiment.com/projects/saving-tropical-migratory-bird-habitat","project_id":"saving-tropical-migratory-bird-habitat","user_id":15295,"likes":2,"comments":0,"save_url":"/updates/save","editor":"redactor","citations":[],"new_record":false,"is_published":true,"is_draft":false,"save_path":"/updates/save","file_attachments":[],"tags":[],"text_to_be_jsonified_for_read":"

Why 300 Acres is a Big Deal

","project_milestones":[],"completed_milestones":[],"edit_milestones_path":"/projects/saving-tropical-migratory-bird-habitat/wizard#milestone","base_path":"/projects/saving-tropical-migratory-bird-habitat/updates/MAyLIQ","class_name":"Update","json_for_read":{"document":{"data":{},"key":"d303df944a604842b8b753e523c676b2","kind":"document","nodes":[{"data":{},"key":"c54aa3cdc8694b8b992a6ac9e809b9a3","kind":"block","isVoid":false,"type":"heading-one","nodes":[{"key":"e006c95319ba409d9efec34a783c6112","kind":"text","ranges":[{"kind":"range","text":"Why 300 Acres is a Big Deal","marks":[]}]}]},{"data":{},"key":"53462b354c8448d2a57eda4acdbd79b7","kind":"block","isVoid":false,"type":"paragraph","nodes":[{"key":"aea5aa43221448579a2442a64cc849f1","kind":"text","ranges":[{"kind":"range","text":"In most places, 300 acresprobably isn’t a big deal. Where I live in the northeastern US, a 300-acre tract of protected forest is common. Lessthan a drop in a really big bucket. 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Land withinthese “protected” areas is often illegally logged and farmed due to a lack ofenforcement. Additionally, theremaining privately held forest is dwindling, giving way to lucrative cattlegrazing. Thus, there is obvious value in protecting even the smallest amount ofhabitat.","marks":[]}]}]},{"data":{},"key":"2532f71ebee74ae281a9212fde24ea15","kind":"block","isVoid":false,"type":"paragraph","nodes":[{"key":"8b1341dca47f4a01ac1a30c833025de7","kind":"text","ranges":[{"kind":"range","text":"The 300 acres we aretargeting as a reserve will have a positive impact on the larger plantation’sproduction acreage, as well. 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Land withinthese “protected” areas is often illegally logged and farmed due to a lack ofenforcement. Additionally, theremaining privately held forest is dwindling, giving way to lucrative cattlegrazing. Thus, there is obvious value in protecting even the smallest amount ofhabitat.","marks":[]}]}]},{"data":{},"key":"2532f71ebee74ae281a9212fde24ea15","kind":"block","isVoid":false,"type":"paragraph","nodes":[{"key":"8b1341dca47f4a01ac1a30c833025de7","kind":"text","ranges":[{"kind":"range","text":"The 300 acres we aretargeting as a reserve will have a positive impact on the larger plantation’sproduction acreage, as well. Bestmanagement practices, many of which are already in place, and the owners’strong conservation ethic will in essence protect the entire 1,100-acreplantation; all of the habitats within it will benefit.","marks":[]}]}]},{"data":{},"key":"0539da3ee1bc48529cc7e830aa99fd53","kind":"block","isVoid":false,"type":"paragraph","nodes":[{"key":"bddd9ac4120744189fa38f46e47b6597","kind":"text","ranges":[{"kind":"range","text":"An important aspect of thereserve will be to educate and introduce younger generations of Dominicans tothe value of conservation, and assurrounding landowners are educated as well, the idea of managing for wildlifewill become more accepted and practiced. This type of model follows closely on the heels of the newly establishedReserva Privida Zorzal, a 1000-acre conservation area set aside through effortsby Chris Rimmer and others to protect the threatened Bicknell’s Thrush. 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Why 300 Acres is a Big Deal

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