File:Don Perry SmithsonianCover.jpg

Earth Scientist Don Perry in the Canopy

Demonstrating the First-Generation Rainforest Research in His Canopy Aerial Web

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Rainforest

• https://www.greenpolicy360.net/w/Rainforest_Canopy_Don_Perry

• https://ticotimes.net/travel/was-recreational-ziplining-really-invented-in-costa-rica-yes-indeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed

"It was a change in perspective, an awakening, deja vu.... I felt I belonged there"

The canopy world flourishes at the equivalent of the “15th floor” of the rain forest, 50 metres up. It is difficult to study from ground level because of the dense vegetation that obscures the world above. Three-quarters of rain forest trees have limbs that are too weak to climb. Many rise 25 metres without branching. (One-step) Snakes, scorpions, numerous ants and troublesome insects are a further deterrent.... The rain forest canopy, Perry points out, contains "the most complex communities of life on earth".

>Dr. Donald Perry, founder of The Rainforest Aerial Tram, pioneered the exploration of the canopy beginning in 1974. His innovative methods of access include rope systems and an automated cable way. Of his latest idea he states, "no system in the world can offer this intimate proximity to such an extensive volume of rainforest. Knowledge that will help save forests will finally be within reach." Dr. Perry began work on an 'ecoTram' after becoming convinced that the only way to stop destruction of the rainforest was by showing not only Costa Ricans but people throughout the world the wonder of this unexplored habitat and by creating an alternative to unsustainable exploitation of the forest. Dr. Perry's canopy access methods are now used worldwide by a network of arboreal biologists who are uncovering secrets of treetop life.

Rainforest Alliance - Forests are home to some two-thirds of the world's plants and animals. As they are cleared and degraded, the unique flora and fauna that depend on these ecosystems become threatened with extinction.

>In 1978, studying the role of herbivorous bats in dispersing seeds of the monkey-pot tree in Costa Rica, Perry hit on the solution: a special web of ropes and cables that permitted unrestricted movement across a canopy. With John Williams, an engineer friend from California, Perry developed a system for a platform, 400 metres of rope web, pulleys and descent ropes, with which he could move from ground level to above the tree top and anywhere inside the canopy world. "The combination of the web and the descent ropes gave unrestricted movement through a volume of forest an acre in area and 30 metres in depth, opening great biological wealth to observation," Perry recalls.

With Williams he designed the Automated Web for Canopy Exploration (AWCE), using a stainless steel cable, a rigid chair and wireless controls. This took much of the fear out of canopy research and enabled two researchers at a time to manoeuvre up to the canopy at 30 centimetres a second. The AWCE design won him a Rolex Award, and Popular Science said it "promises to open the jungle to research the same way scuba gear opened the oceans".

Popular Science's description (including a reference (above) we were offering to the work of Cousteau, a comparison between the rich life in the oceans and rich life of rain forests and the scientific breakthrough of Cousteau's invention of the scuba gear enabling close up studies and Don's invention of climbing gear enabling science close up and personal) - http://books.google.com/books?id=J3sUn8WV22MC&pg=PA87&lpg=PA87&dq=don+perry

>Don Perry, Ecotram's founder was instrumental in igniting Costa Rica’s ecotourism-based economic transformation and a whole new field -- the scientific investigation of the most complex communities of life on earth found living on high tropical tree limbs. This work was responsible for the zip-line fad sweeping the globe as well as the use of cable-ways to view nature. Now Ecotram LLC has added a new investigative and ecotouristic tool to its lineup of cable-ways for exploring and studying nature. [LinkedIn]

Perry's Rain Forest Aerial Tram in Costa Rica.

The Aerial Tram was the first zero-gauge cableway and the world’s first canopy “ski-lift”. This system has virtually no impact on nature and it has greatly expanded interest in canopy visitation.

http://blog.rolexawards.com/2013/07/ecotrams-canopy-evolution-2/

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Up in the Rainforest Canopy with Don Perry, My Friend, an Amazing collaboration

http://floridawestcoast.tumblr.com/post/41543294774/up-in-the-rainforest-canopy-with-don-perry-my

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Steven Schmidt: ... What we are trying to save when we talk about saving the tropical forests, the lungs of the earth and much more.

It's about Gaia, it's about watching the planet breathing and much more