About the Station

Independent applied research grounded in the tropical agricultural landscape.

Institutional mission

Advancing science through place-based inquiry.

To advance scientific knowledge and develop practical applications for tropical agricultural resources through research in regenerative agroforestry, botanical science, and circular economic systems.

Our vision: agricultural systems in which scientific innovation, ecological stewardship, and economic productivity reinforce one another.

Central research question

What can more complete resource utilization make possible?

How can tropical agricultural systems utilize biological resources more completely while maintaining ecological function and improving economic viability?

This question connects our investigations in botanical characterization, experimental processing, field ecology, and agricultural economic analysis.

Scientific philosophy

Evidence before conclusions.

Projects begin with defined questions and methods appropriate to the investigation. We distinguish preliminary observations from established findings and evaluate technical, economic, and ecological implications without presuming favorable outcomes.

Applied science

Research & Technological Development

Investigate scientific and technological uncertainties that may inform practical and commercially relevant applications.

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Organizational structure

Research and commercialization are distinct.

Copper Hill Research Station is an independent research operation in the coffee highlands of western Puerto Rico. Scientific research and experimental development are distinct from subsequent commercial manufacturing, distribution, and other downstream activities. Project-specific funding, intellectual property, and collaborative rights are governed by applicable agreements.

Research since 2019

Field research began in 2019. Soil and site baseline work followed in 2022, and economic modeling and processing trials expanded the program in 2024 and 2025. The Whole Tree Economic Model thesis was published in 2026.

Copper Hill Research Station is based at Copper Hill Farm in Las Marías & Maricao, Puerto Rico.

Research network

Where the research happens

Copper Hill, in Las Marías & Maricao, Puerto Rico, is the Station’s principal research site. The research program is directed from Puerto Rico, and the research results and intellectual property it produces are held there. Depending on the project, some work is carried out with collaborators at collaborating sites.

Principal research site: Copper Hill Farm, Las Marías & Maricao, Puerto Rico. Research direction, field programs, research-batch coffee-leaf processing, site baseline work, and the Whole Tree Economic Model case study.
Collaborating field site: Hacienda La Aurora, Nicaragua. Field-scale harvesting and processing of coffee leaves.
Collaborating site: Harvard Innovation Labs, Allston, Massachusetts. Venture and thesis-related development.
Collaborating brewing trials: Portland, Maine. Immersion and drip extraction trials.

Current collaborators

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS): Conservation planning for the farm’s forest and agroforestry areas, with field-office reviews from 2022 and a forest management plan completed in 2026 (Studies 05 and 11).
AgroforestryX: Copper Hill is working with AgroforestryX (NRCS) and is among the first to implement it. Used to design the forest-farming and agroforestry plots since 2025 (Study 05).
Envirosurvey, Inc.: Forest management planning, vegetation and fauna inventories, and agroforestry design with Copper Hill since 2022 (Studies 08 and 11).
Caribbean Regenerative Community Development (CRCD): USDA Climate-Smart Commodities project, 2023–2028: shade-tree planting and biochar in the coffee plots (Study 01).
Cafiesencia: Forest Stewardship Plan for Copper Hill Farm, July 2022 to June 2032, including bird counts (Studies 06 and 08).

Past collaborations

University of British Columbia, Faculty of Land and Food Systems: Coffee-leaf research with Dr. David D. Kitts, Dr. Xiumin Chen and Arnaud Petitvallet, published as a past collaboration. Copper Hill acquired that research and the related intellectual property (Study 04).
Ardent Mills: Bake-lab evaluation of green banana and plantain flours from Copper Hill, 2021 (Study 02).
USDA NRCS conservation contract: Terraces, cover cropping and erosion controls, 2019–2024 (Study 05).

Each study record lists its principal site and any collaborating site. Collaborators are independent of the Station. Their published work keeps its original authors and institutions, and listing them here does not mean they endorse the Station.