Peter Smith, a resident of Hillsboro, Wisconsin, formally initiated work within the villages around the Chococente Wildlife Refuge in the Municipality of Santa Teresa, Nicaragua. Peter's presence gives the Richland Center-Santa Teresa Sister City Project its first representative who will be living full time in Santa Teresa. Peter left for Nicaragua in July to begin language studies in Esteli. In mid-August Marty Clearfield of the sister organization and Dr. Rob Horwich of Community Conservation, met with Peter in Santa Teresa to begin the initial phase of the Chococente project by gathering information on both the professional interests and the community interests in Chococente.

Meetings were held with representatives of the Alcaldia de Santa Teresa, MARENA (Ministerio de Ambiente y Recursos Naturales), UNA (Univeridad Nacional Agraria), UCA, Universidad Centre America, Nicambiental, GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit), and Fauna and Flora, International. Once initial information was obtained. Smith, Clearfield and Horwich performed a networking function by disseminating the gathered information to all interested organizations. They additionally attended a number of meetings by COMAREN, a commission of interested groups, which meets regularly at Chococente to discuss the future of the reserve. Members of COMAREN attending the meetings included members of MARENA, representatives of the communities, members of the Army, Nicambiental, and GTZ.

The trio went to Chococente every week for 3-4 days in order to meet the villagers from villages within the refuge including Papilon, La Palma and Vera Cruz. These visits laid the foundation to begin a dialogue with the villagers about the kind of projects they would be interested in.

In meetings with the villages of Papilon and La Palma, Peter received very positive feed back about the idea of building a modest structure to house tourists and researchers who would study the refuge. Peter will be discussing this idea with the sister city members when he returns to the US for a short visit. If the sister city organization is able to fund this structure, then a site will be selected and a proposal will be submitted to MARENA for approval.

In addition, Peter is interested in establishing a model farm center which would explore alternative methods of farming for area farmers. This farm would develop agricultural methods which would be appropriate for the dry forest area and which would help reduce the pressures on the tropical dry forest of the Chococente Reserve. This farm center would ideally be located in the buffer zone outside of the reserve.

An education program was initiated when Bayardo Quintero of MARENA suggested that MARENA finance printing of an educational coloring book about sea turtles and the dry forest. This coloring book would be distributed to the Santa Teresa schools and possibly to the schools around La Flor and Isla Juan Venado, two other dry forests with turtle nesting beaches. Final discussions with Francisco Reyes of Nicambiental led to an agreement to work together on this project.

Community Conservation, Inc. has received permission from the Center for Marine Conservation in Washington D.C. to reprint their 30 page coloring book that is written in English and Spanish with well done drawings on sea turtles. Preliminary plans for an additional 20 pages with specific details on the Pacific dry forest of Nicaragua and some specifics on the olive ridley turtles which nest at Chococente are underway. Rob Horwich and Jane Furchgott of the sister city project will be working on this addition.

In 1994, a partnership between Community Conservation (CC) and the West Fork Sports Club promoted community awareness and involvement in the protection of the Kickapoo River Valley. At the same time a three year Nuzum grant supported valley-wide classroom activities related to water quality and other watershed projects. Soon after, CC began to work with teachers, providing water quality monitoring materials and Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to 8 schools throughout the watershed.

In 1996, Trout Unlimited's (TU) River Initiative stimulated additional watershed activities. A staff person was hired to keep the momentum going with teachers. With CC's active support, a volunteer citizen monitoring program was started two years later. Out of the CC and TU partnership grew a group of dedicated citizens, community organizations and government agencies interested in promoting stewardship in the Kickapoo River valley.

Valley Stewardship Network (VSN, pronounced Vision) was created to coordinate and maintain continuity of these varied projects to better protect the natural resources of the Kickapoo River watershed. Bringing together citizens and agencies to form a network means there is a more organized voice for the watershed. The overall objective of VSN is to promote community involvement and management of the watershed by building an organization representing the diverse interests of those residing in the watershed.

Composed of members of varied interests such as farmers, educators, and tourism providers, and representing private and public agencies, VSN has been meeting monthly since October of 1999. Since then, vision and mission statements have been developed, supportive grants written and received, two brochures created, a Board of Directors formed, Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation drafted, and watershed celebrations and field days organized and implemented.

The first event sponsored by VSN was a very successful "Celebrate the Kickapoo" day held on April 29, 2000. Over 45 booths and presenters entertained over 200 participants. VSN has also been actively involved in planning Teachers' Field Days with Vernon County Conservation Department's Environmental Educator and the Kickapoo Valley Reserve. Working with Trout Unlimited, a Forestry Field Day was held in September of 2000, which VSN staff helped organize and did presentations for. A Water Celebration at the UW-Richland Center campus to honor citizen water quality monitors and educators in different watersheds in Wisconsin was another event VSN cosponsored with UW-Extension and Trout Unlimited.

Partnerships seem to be what works best for everyone. The Vernon County Land and Water Conservation Department donated equipment to Kickapoo Watershed citizen monitors and teachers in 1999. The LaCrosse Department of Natural Resources has additionally provided temperature loggers to the monitoring effort, which makes the monitoring easier and more worthwhile since the DNR can use the data in their decisionmaking. It is a win/win situation for all.

VSN is coordinating Agency Collaboration meetings to look at what conservation efforts are already being made in order to avoid redundancy, how landowners are being served and where there are gaps, and ways they can bring their energies together and work more efficiently and effectively. Issues that came to the forefront immediately were Smart Growth, focusing on land use; Kickapoo River cleanup and logjams; and a field day focusing on biodiversity, stewardship and sustainability. A subcommittee has been formed to discuss outreach to local communities on Smart Growth.

VSN is pleased to welcome the new Board of Directors: Robert Johnson, Maggie Jones, Ben Logan, Lynn Chakoian, Paul Krahn and Dave Ebbert. VSN's first newsletter went out at the end of 2000. Another development VSN is offering to local groups and organizations is a slide presentation, focusing on the beauty of the Kickapoo area and stewardship efforts. VSN promotes a citizen-based approach to stewardship and they expect to achieve nonprofit status within the next year to help serve the residents of the Kickapoo River Watershed.

Traveling on a grant from Primate Conservation, Inc, CC Director Dr. Rob Horwich again visited Assam, India to reassess the situation for golden langur conservation after a hiatus due to threats to Indian collaborators on the project. Despite such threats and killings of members of various NGO's collaborating with the project and the ransom kidnapping of an area District Forest Officer of the Assam Forest Department, progress has been made in initiating a major reforestation push within the Manas Biosphere in Western Assam. This is the main range of India's most endangered primate, the golden langur.

A meeting with Dr. Arun Srivastava, Director of the Northeast Centre of the Indo-US Primate Project (IUSPP), led to discussions of ways to continue the work of the Indo-US Primate Project which has been going since 1994. The project, under the direction of Dr. S.M. Mohnot of JNV University in Jodhpur and in collaboration with David Ferguson, Project Coordinator, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Dr. Chuck Southwick, US Advisor, is winding down its formal program. The program's researchers are now currently writing up their research projects with their focus on applying some of the results to practical conservation efforts.

The future conservaton and research planned for the golden langur will attempt to continue some of these goals of the IUSPP NE Centre. Under a grant from the National Geographic Society, Dr. Srivastava and his researchers will be carrying out a more detailed survey of the golden langur range. Researchers, Jihosuo Biswas and Dilip Chetry, under a grant from Primate Conservation, Inc., will study the ecology of golden langurs in a number of diverse habitats.

In addition to the research program by the Indo-US Primate project, a small but dedicated group ofconservationists both from NGO's and from members of the Assam Forest Department are interacting and networking partly as a result of the IUSPP work. Two regional NGO's, the Forest and Wildlife Conservation Forum (FWCF) and Nature's Foster will continue to work closely with the golden langur project.

Both NGO's have been active in the last year. Rajen Islari, Chairman of the FWCF, has been organizing 80% of the over 100 villages into committees to participate in the Assam Forest Department's Joint Forest Management Program. Although other states in India have had the program for almost 10 years, Assam only created their program in 1999. This program will allow a partnership of the formal committees and the Assam Forest Department to help reforest areas of the Reserve Forests with joint responsibilities and benefits as designated by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.

Additionally, the Forest and Wildlife Conservation Forum and Natures's Foster as well as the Assam Forest Department, have created tree nurseries at Raimona, Nabinagar, Runi khata and Kakoijana. Trees from these nurseries will be ready for transplantation into the Reserve Forests next June when the rainy season begins.

Nature's Foster, which had helped to organize the villages around the small Kakoijana Reserve Forest, has now also begun to work with the villages adjacent to the Manas Tiger Reserve, the core protected area of the Manas Biosphere Reserve. Dr. Horwich, Rajen Islari, N.K. Dey, President of Nature's Foster, and Range Officer Mohan Brahma visited with Conservator of Forests and Director of the Manas Tiger Reserve, S.P. Singh, about potential areas of collaboration. Other events and meetings that Horwich and Islari participated in, included a meeting with Chief Conservator of Forests of the Western Circle, A. Rabha and District Forest Officers (DFO's) Narzary, Barman, Partiri, and Reddy. They also gave a short talk on "Conservation Day" at Gossaigaon College and talked to the villagers of Ravipara.

Once widespread in Central America, tropical dry forests are the most endangered ecosysytems. Dry forests once composed almost half of the existing forests in the Central America lowlands. Today, less than 2% exist, and less than .08% are protected. Chococente is one of the few tropical dry forest remnants in Central America which has protective status.

Dry forests are defined by water limitation, seasonality, foliage longevity, vegetation structure, substrate, the number of tree stories and the horizontal continuity of each story and other aspects of forest structure. While limited by climate, soil types can additionally affect the structure of a dry forest which can vary from 2 to 30 meters in height. Tropical dry forests are formed as a result of climatic conditions. Prevailing winds, blowing through Central America from the northeast or east to the southwest or west cause an inequality of rainfall due to locality relative to mountainous areas. Regions north or east (windward of the mountains) of the mountains tend to be wet, whereas those to the south or west (leeward) are much drier and more seasonal in precipitation because of the mountain's rain shadow pattern. In Central America the pacific side, where Chococente is located, is drier than the Caribbean side.

A tropical dry forest has a mean annual rainfall range of 250-2000mm. With mean annual temperatures of above 17 degrees C, the ratio of potential evaporation to precipitation is greater than one to a maximum of 2. Chococente's dry period extends fiom December to May; however this past year they were plagued with a much longer drought. The wettest period is during October and November when it is difficult to reach Chococente.

Dry forests respond readily to rain. The main growth occurs during the wet season. No growth or even shrinkage occurs in the dry season. Even below the ground this is evident. Fine roots are shed in the dry season and restored rapidly in the wet season.

Seasonality controls the temporal growth pattern, productivity, organic matter turnover, reproduction and other traits. Although dry forests are often referred to as deciduous, not all dry forests are deciduous and not all deciduous forests are dry. However Chococente has approximately 60-75% species which shed their leaves during the dry season.

Tropical dry forests usually have only two strata of trees, a canopy about 20-30 meters high and an understory 10-20 meters high. Canopy tees usually have short stout trunks and spreading flat crowns. Many canopy trees have thin compound leaves which are shed during the dry season. The under story has slender leaning trunks with small open evergreen crowns. There is also a 2-5 meter shrub layer usually multistemmed and covered with spines or thorns. Woody or herbaceous vines complement the forest with only a few bromiliad epiphytes. In comparison to wet tropical forests, the water limitation generally gives dry forests lower canopy height, less species diversity, basal area, biomass and production rate, but they have an increased root system. They also have a higher proportion of endemic species.