Tortuguero Protected Zone - Geography

Geography

The park is located on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, and covers an area of 77,032 acres (31,174 ha). It is bounded with an elevation range of 0–230 metres (0–750 ft), indicative of a sea coastal region to low hilly topography. Tortuguero is bordered on the north by the Barra del Colorado Wildlife Refuge (with habitats and climate similar to Tortuguero), to the south by the mouth of the Parismina River and the Cariari National Wetlands, the town of Tortuguero at the mouth of the Tortuguero River, and the Dr. Archie Carr Wildlife Refuge, which is a biological station to carry out turtle tagging program run by the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (Now known was the Sea Turtle Conservancy). The park has worked with the neighboring village of Tortugueroto help its inhabitants understand that preserving their natural resources is the key to encourage eco-tourism.

While volcanic activity is reported as formation of a group of small islands, erosion has created the depressions which have a permeable base of "light grey, broken lava rocks, with harder rocks and grey or dark grey lavas overlying". Sandy soils resulting from sedimentation dominates the reserve with formation of parallel bars in the coastal area. The depressions are subject to filling by ephemeral floods; estuary lakes, grass marshes and wooded swamps caused by very heavy rainfall. Small tides of about 40 centimetres (16 in) height have also affected the coastal zone. The small rivers and streams that originate in the hills and flow through the park generally have water 3 metres (9.8 ft) deep. The lakes in the northern part of the reserve are fed by the Colorado River. The very humid tropical forest is influenced by excessive humidity, rapid drainage and thin soils, with over 330 days of cloud cover per year. Moisture-laden winds come from the Caribbean.

With rich water resources from a precipitation of 250 inches (6,400 mm) per year, the drainage system of the park is fed by many rivers. There are a large number of interlinked canals, water ways and navigable lagoons and lakes that create plains of sediment carried by the river system. The plains are interspersed with rolling hills of forest that were created in ancient days from volcanic cinder cones, of which the Tortuguero Hill and the Lomas de Sierpe of 1,000 feet (300 m) height could be mentioned. Swaths of the park have been semi-legally clear-cut, which damage also allows access to habitat of the endangered Green sea turtle.