Figure 3.1. Vriesia umbrosa and other
epiphytes crowd the trunk of a tree In the
Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve. Photo-
graph byStephan Ingram.Atlantic and Pacific slopes (Fig. 1.8). This study area
includes the MCFP, the Santa Elena Ecological Reserve,
and the Bosque Eterno de los Nifios (including Bajo del
Tigre), part of Arenal National Park, and private lands
in the buffer zone surrounding the Monteverde Reserve
Complex. Most of the San Ramon Forest Reserve has
been excluded because of the difficulty of access from
Monteverde. Nearly all of the study area falls within the
premontane and lower montane life zones. A small area
of life zones in the tropical belt extends above the 700
m contour in the San Luis valley below Monteverde and
in the Pefias Blancas valley on the Atlantic slope. All
of this area (ca. 450 km^2 ) is within a day's walk (25 km
radius) from Monteverde.
Historically, nearly the entire Monteverde region
was covered by closed canopy forest. No natural sa-
vannas or grasslands occurred in the area; all current
non-forested areas were created by humans through
cutting and fire. The dry savanna-like habitat along the
road to Monteverde from the Inter-American Highway
is maintained by cattle grazing and clearing with ma-
chete, chainsaw, and fire. Areas that have not been cut
or burned for two years are quickly colonized by shrubs
and tree saplings. The extent of forest clearing in this
area by indigenous inhabitants is unknown, but it may
have been substantial, as suggested by the widespread
occurrence of pottery fragments (see Timm, "Prehis-
toric Cultures," p. 408). No extensive marshes occur
in the zone, but a few small lakes lie within the pro-
tected area on the Atlantic slope: Laguna Escondida
(near Eladio's Refuge), Laguna Poco Sol (near the Poco
Sol Field Station) in the Rio Peiias Blancas valley, and
a small crater lake on top of Cerro Bekom near the
source of the Rio La Esperanza (south of the Rio Penas
Blancas). Before it was dammed and flooded, Laguna
de Arenal was a marshy pasture grazed by cattle with
only a small area of open water (W. Haber, pers. obs.,
R. Soto, pers. comm.).40 Plants and Vegetation