Belize Native Trees is a start-up company located in Aguacate village, Toledo District. It began as a conversation between two friends who love trees want to help restore forests in Belize and bring employment to our village. As we talked, it became clear that our dream of growing trees could actually happen, so we began to the process of planning and setting up the nursery. We relied on information gathered from other native nurseries both here and abroad as well as practical growing information from universities with respected horticultural programs. In our view, growing trees and shrubs with local genetics ensures plants are best adapted to the growing conditions in Belize. Our seeds are collected from mature specimens with good branching characteristics and canopy shape. Seed collection sites are varied from year to year to provide the greatest genetic variability.
We are, by definition, an indigenous business. Belize Native Trees is 100% owned and operated by Mayan descendants in Aguacate. An extremely important attribute of our business is bringing meaningful employment to our rural village. From weeding and pruning to collecting seeds and installing our trees, we want to improve our villagers lives by employing them. When you patronize our nursery, you not only help my family but you also help the residents of our village. We envision working with our National Park system, many ecotourism businesses and individual landowners wanting to restore their land to a more natural state. Working closely with them during the planning process to provide species lists and cultural requirements and, in some cases, we will grow seed they have provided. All our customers have a keen interest in increasing the value of their land as wildlife habitat and returning it to a more natural state.
You are welcome to schedule a visit to tour our facility and see for yourself the high-quality nursery stock we provide.
Making the right decisions about which species are suitable for your planting application can be difficult. The descriptions we provide on our species pages are designed to give you enough information to make informed decisions about which species to purchase. We encourage you to vary the species that you buy in order to increase the species diversity in your plantings. All native plants are fed upon or otherwise used by animals. Their role as a producer is to be the foundation of the food chain. When we make decisions based on increasing species diversity in your plantings, we encourage consumers, like birds and small mammals, to use your plants as food or to eat the insects using your plants as food. A broad, highly diverse plant base to our food chain or food web is essential to a successful restoration planting.
Belize Native Trees grows seedling trees and shrubs in standard polybags, approximately 6″ in diameter and 8″ deep. Seedlings in these containers range in size from 1 to 2 feet depending upon the species and are not staked. We are happy to contract grow trees for you as well. For example, trees grown in 3-gallon containers generally top out at 4-6 feet and have a trunk caliper of 5/8″ to 1″ and are staked and straight. These take longer to grow but are a much more substantial product capable of withstanding the rigors of being planted in a new area.
