This station was a farm bought by Dr. L. Holdridge in 1954, who was a forester and climate ecologist. In 1968 there was a single building on the western side of the river where Holdridge would allow students to study the forest. At this time he sold he station to OTS where it would ultimately expand into the station it is today. La Selva is connected by a biological corridor to Brauilo Carrillo National Park south in the mountains. This allows animals to migrate seasonally between the elevations.

The station today has an animal lab, an analytical lab, library, researcher cabins, education building, a lounge, and the original River Station. This is on one side of the suspension bridge of el Rio Puerto Viejo. The other side features the visitor reception buiding, dining hall, motor pool, and visitor cabins. I cross a suspension bridge everyday that has crocodiles and turtles below it and often monkeys climbing on it.

The forest itself is mostly undisturbed since Holdridge’s time, other than the 40+ years of research that has been conducted here and some of those projects have been conducted over 40 years with generations of biologists. There is also secondary forests and swamps and some pasture lands. All of this is to study how different they are from each other. Surrounding the station, Dole, Chiquita, and Del Monte bananas and pineapple are the dominant forest type.

It has been an experience to learn here and actually see a rain forest, even if has only rained three times during our three week stay. This is uncharacteristic of this forest and is likely a result of the year’s weather phenomenon, or a omen of patterns to come. The only down side of this station is that you can over investigate. Year after year of collecting poison dart frogs, for example, can possible acclimate the frogs to handling, and the behavior of the forest animals change.

It is an excellent, modern station for study and perhaps I will return one day…