Pitilla Sector is 4,150 hectares in size with cloud forest in its higher elevations and Atlantic rain forest at its lower elevations from 400-900 m similar to what once covered the Atlantic side of the Guanacaste Mountain Range before being partially deforested for agriculture and cattle ranching, and is located in the northeast corner of the Área de Conservación Guanacaste. This area has some of the highest species diversity in Costa Rica due to its Atlantic influence. Orosí River originates here and flows into Lake Nicaragua as well as Mena River and Haciendas or Colón River.
Around the Pitilla Biological Station at 675 m are several thousand hectares of regenerating forest ranging in age from 1 to 80 years old as well as pastures, primary rain forest and a few hectares of primary cloud forest whose only threats have been hunting and winds from the occasional severe storm. To the west of the station, Mount Orosilito at 1,100 m sits on the slope of Orosí Volcano.
Sectors Program Management
Sectors Program personnel and parataxonomists reside full-time at the station which is equipped with two dormitories that sleep up to 30 people, three showers, and roofed patios and porches used for lab work and lecturing. Staff maintain the station's installations, trails, and pastures as well as assisting and collaborating with researchers and students while also patrolling to control illegal hunting in the Protected Wildland Area.
History
Pitilla Sector is named for the last owner of the property who sold it in 1988. The station was built in 1988 with wood that was seized due to illegal logging on the border with Nicaragua by Julio Quirós, an ACG official.