Conservation considerations. The lower
portions of the major ravines leading down into
the Rio Potrero Grande valley are all occupied
by fragments of valley-bottom tall forests.
These Santa Elena tall forests are the only
back-beach mixed semi-evergreen dry forests
being allowed to regenerate within a conserved
wildland on the entire Pacific coast of Central
America. The forests encircling Bahia Potrero
Grande are one of the finest examples of this
nearly extinct habitat (Janzen 1998).
Because Peninsula Santa Elena has fortunately
been relatively isolated from deforestation
during the past century (except for the
fires continuing to whittle away at the dwarf
forest on the uplands), and because it has not
been generally available to subsistence farmer/
hunters, it still contains some amazingly intact
populations of species that have been otherwise
very severely threatened in Costa Rica. It also
contains some remnants of very threatened
species, remnants that are the seed for the restoration
of these populations on a local basis.
Finally, it contains an array of species that are
very local (specialists to the soil, climate, age
and insularity conditions of Santa Elena), or
endemic (Janzen 1998).
The list of threatened or endangered species
of plants and animals in the unique habitats
of the ACG is already large and growing.
Certainly Poeciliopsis santaelena, whose only
habitat is a single stream in this dry and peninsular
environment, merits being placed on
this list.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks are due to the staff of the following
Costa Rican offices: Area de Conservación
Guanacaste (ACG), Sistema Nacional de Areas
de Conservación (SINAC) of the Ministerio
del Ambiente y Energía (MINAE). Biologist
Roger Blanco, Research Coordinator for ACG,