celebrate National Rain Forest Week

very active while this was going on.

But I read through the entries and clicked on some of the links and enjoyed the beautiful photos.

I also recently signed up at work to have automatic deductions of $5/paycheck donated to The Nature Conservancy, one of my favorite environmental organizations. I’ve been a member for probably close to 30 years and have been very impressed with the creative ways they have come up with for their goal of protecting natural areas that are biologically important. The majority of their work has been within the United States (including the temperate and tropical rainforests here) but they also are very active in international projects that are often focussed on tropical rainforests. This page gives more information about their rainforest programs.

They have chapters in all 50 states and programs in 30 other countries if you’re interested in getting more involved.

The photo is from a reserve in Ecuador that they helped to protect.

I don’t know if this has been mentioned before, but I’m sure it has…

The Rainforest Site helps promote awareness and prevent deforestation every day. With a simple, daily click of the green “Click Here to Give – it’s FREE” button at The Rainforest Site, visitors help to preserve rainforest land. Visitors pay nothing. Critical habitat is preserved. Every click counts in the battle to save our rainforests.

The Rainforest Site.

XOX

Help saving the forest helps saving their lives…

you do not only save it but the animals living in it too..

This goal made me think of my time in Lanta island. I went there with a girl friend. We were lucky to have a free and amazing trip to ride an elephant in the jungle, climb a cave and trek along the elephant track. It was a wonderful experience seeing elephant walking and eating in the forest, instead of seeing them walking on the street.

There are so many animals that live in the rainforests around the world, but this link is from the Amazon. It is but one page of many and highlights the variety of animal life, not just plant life, that relies upon the rainforests to survive. Yet another reason to save the rainforests! There are many pages at this site so I hope you all enjoy them,

http://www.leslietaylor.net/gallery/animals/mammals.htm

Thank you also for making this team possible and hopefully many can enjoy the beauty of the natural world for many more years to come.
XOX

I guess National Rainforest week is either over or almost over. Here’s one more picture from my trip to the rainforest of a cave that a bear made in a huge, old tree.

I am so grateful to all of you who have so enthusiastically joined in this celebration of the rainforest. As National Rainforest Week draws to a close today, I leave you with Pegge Hopper images of a wahine in a maile lei. The maile is a fragrant vine that grows in the rain forest, and its leaves are used in leis of celebration. Leis are a Hawaiian expression of gratitude and aloha.

Imagine the fragrance, not a heavy flowery scent, but of the forest itself, as if the spirit of the forest, ancient and new at the same time, had a natural perfume.

aloha & mahalo … A hui hou!

for hosting celebrate National Rain Forest Week. It was beautiful and educational. A great gathering of 43Ters. Our gracious hostess, mahinui, did a fantastic job. Thanks for a wonderful celebration!

http://starbulletin.com/2007/09/29/news/story05.html

The State of Hawaii has purchased development rights to substantial acreage on the Big Island, with reforestation plans. This is a beautiful story, wherein a couple leaves a legacy that goes beyond money.

This photo from the article is very typical of the rain forests there. They are sometimes referred to euphemistically as cloud forests, perhaps so as not to scare off tourists.