Quetzal Education Research Center (San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica)

The Quetzal Education Research Center (QERC) is the ecological field station operated by the Biology Department of [Southern Nazarene University] . Nestled in the upper reaches of the Rio Savegre, which flows west from the continental divide off the slopes of Cerro de la Muerte (San Gerardo de Dota, Costa Rica), QERC provides a base of operations for students and researchers studying tropical montaine cloud forest ecosystems.

The center was founded in 1985 through a cooperative agreement between SNU and Efrain Chacon, a founding settler of the San Gerardo de Dota community, as a component of the work of SNU faculty member (emeritus) Leo Finkenbinder. Finkenbinder and his network of colleagues established a cloud forest research program that focused on introducing undergraduate students to the tropical cloud forest ecosystem of the area, which included an easily observed population of resplendent quetzal and a human community with ecological sensitivities and a strong commitment to developing the human landscape in ways that fostered habitat preservation for the quetzal and other cloud forest species. The facilities (dedicated in 2001) of QERC now include an analytical laboratory for the study of cloud forest ecology, library facilities focusing of tropical ecosystems, the beginnings of a regional natural history field museum, as well as living space for 28 students, faculty, and researchers. [Dwight Neuenshwander and Leo Finkenbinder, “The Chainsaw and the White Oak: From Astrobiology to Ecological Sustainability,” "Radiations" (Spring 2001), pp. 5-10.] [Dennis C. Williams, "Transformations in the Environmental Economy of the Upper Savegre Valley, Costa Rica, 1952-2002" Paper delivered to the American Society for Environmental History, Victoria, British Columbia, April 2004.]

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