On August 6, 2026, more than 50 Rotarians and volunteers from six countries gathered at Dolphin Bay, on Isla San Cristóbal in Bocas del Toro, Panama, to plant a forest in Trammell S. Crow’s name.
A thousand trees before lunch
Volunteers came from the United States, Costa Rica, Australia, Mexico, Panama and Malaysia. By the time the group broke for lunch, they had planted more than 1,000 trees of more than 50 native species, the latest milestone in a two-acre reforestation site at Dolphin Bay.
Trees for the Great Green Macaw
Among the trees planted is the mountain almendro, a keystone species of these rainforests and the only tree in which the critically endangered Great Green Macaw will nest. Great Green Macaw numbers have fallen sharply as mature almendro forest has been lost. Every almendro planted in Bocas del Toro is a future nest site.
More than 15,000 mountain almendro trees are now in the ground across Bocas del Toro. The first are expected to begin fruiting by 2028, and an aviary is planned for 2030 to breed and release Great Green Macaws back into the restored forest.
The second forest in his honor
The Trammell S. Crow Rare Tree Forest is the second in a growing series of living tributes to Trammell. The first, the EarthX Forest, is rising on a former peat field in Rovaniemi, Finland, near the Arctic Circle. One anchors carbon in the far north; the other rebuilds rainforest on Panama’s Caribbean coast. Next comes a forest for the monarch butterflies in the highlands of Mexico.
A reef just offshore
That afternoon, the volunteers snorkeled out to the Rotary Reefs off Bocas del Toro. In 2022, reef structures shaped like the Rotary wheel were set on the sea floor here, and one of them was dedicated to Trammell S. Crow, the first living tribute in his name. Today it is alive with coral, sponges, fish, sharks and lobsters.
“If the oceans die, we die.”
Captain Paul Watson, a longtime friend of EarthX
The Rotary Reef in his honorVisit Rotary ReefsCaptain Paul Watson Foundation
With thanks to the partners
The planting was made possible by Panama’s Ministry of Environment (MiAmbiente), the Bocas Rainforest Reforestation Initiative (BRRI), Green Acres, Dolphin Bay Hideaway, the Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation (ITEC), the Rotary Club of Bocas del Toro, The Tree Projects and The Panama Project.
A forest that will keep growing long after the day it was planted. Happy birthday, Trammell.
