CaymANNature: Colliers Wilderness Reserve

Cayman Nature Tours

Colliers Wilderness Reserve is a National Trust for the Cayman Islands protected area, secured through a European Union grant-funded project entitled Management of Protected Areas to Support Sustainable Economies (MPASSE).

There is a short, easy-walking loop trail through original-growth dry rocky woodland (phytokarst) where many different species of Cayman's plants may be seen – trees, shrubs, vines, cacti, orchids, mistletoes (called Scorn-the Ground in Cayman), also well as fungi, lichens, birds and other creatures.

European Union representatives visited Cayman in November 2016 to assess the progress.

Phytokarst is pinnacle rock of the Cayman Formation dolostone (limestone with magnesium). Roots of trees and shrubs penetrate through the rocks to get water. The roots secrete acids. Microbes bore their way into dolostone to produce the sharp, grey-black weathered surface of the jagged pinnacles which contrasts with the white colour of the unaltered host rocks.

Corato - Agave caymanensis, Cayman Islands endemic,

on the Colliers Wilderness Reserve loop Trail, May 4, 2016

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Colliers Wilderness Reserve

Colliers Wilderness Road under construction, Sept. 25, 2011

Blue Iguanas have more room to roam

CaymanCompass By Norma Connolly - October 27, 2011

The National Trust for the Cayman Islands purchased the land last month for $318,000. Two thirds of the purchase price was provided from a more than 700,000 euro (CI$850,000) grant from the European Union and one third from the National Trust through a donation from Maples Finance, said the Trust’s chair, Carla Reid.

The EU grant for sustainable tourism projects is shared with the Cayman Islands,  Turks and Caicos and the British Virgin Islands.

Grand Cayman Blue Iguana - Cyclura lewisi - Grand Cayman endemic, Aug. 18, 2013

Lily Thorn - Catesbaea parviflora, Sept. 25, 2011

Cayman Scolosanthus - Scolosanthus roulstonii, Grand Cayman endemic, Feb. 19, 2012

Cayman Scolosanthus - Scolosanthus roulstonii, location, Feb. 19, 2012

Cayman Scolosanthus - Scolosanthus roulstonii, Grand Cayman endemic
(Little Salt Creek bluff, Sept. 27, 2006)

Colliers Wilderness Reserve Road, Feb. 19, 2012

Ironwood - Chionanthus caymanensis, Cayman Islands endemic

Entomologist Dr. R. R. Askew photographing

Duppy Cap, Lattice Stinkhorn fungus - Clathrus crispus, Family: CLATHRACEAE
.

Duppy Cap, Lattice Stinkhorn fungus - Clathrus crispus, Family: CLATHRACEAE
The fruiting bodies pop up in lawns and other areas, often by former tree stumps. They smell foul and attract flies.
Range: Florida, the Gulf Coast, the Caribbean, and Mexico.
Photo: P. Ann van B. Stafford, Grand Cayman, Nov. 5, 2015.
http://www.mushroomexpert.com/clathrus_crispus.html

The Colliers Wilderness Reserve entrance is about a mile inland

from the coastal East End road - Austin Conolly Drive.

L to R:

Fred Burton, Stuart Mailer, Aljoscha Wothke - team leader of the final evaluation of the EU MPASSE project (Management of Protected Areas to Support Sustainable Economies), Paul Watler, Ann Stafford, Clare Lumsden, Cathy Childs, Dennis Chong (civil engineer).
Photo: Christina McTaggart Pineda, Grand Cayman, Nov. 22, 2016.

Cathy Childs, Fred Burton, Christina McTaggart Pineda, Aljoscha Wothke - team leader of the final evaluation of the EU MPASSE project (Management of Protected Areas to Support Sustainable Economies), Paul Watler, Clare Lumsden, Stuart Mailer.
Photo: Ann Stafford, Grand Cayman, Nov. 22, 2016.