The administration of Cornell University has expressed its gratitude to the government of the Dominican Republic for the Feb. 27 rescue of two Cornell research ecologists who were stranded for five days in the Armando Bermudez National Park.

"Thanks to the prompt and skillful assistance of emergency workers under the direction of Admiral Radhames Lora Salcedo, the director of civil defense in the Dominican Republic, our researchers are safe and are recovering from their ordeal," said Henrik Dullea, vice president for university relations at Cornell. "We look forward to the time when they resume their research in this critically important part of the island ecosystem."

Patrick Martin, a graduate student in Cornell's Department of Natural Resources, and Olivia Duren, a research assistant, were conducting forest ecology field research in the mountainous national park, which includes the Caribbean region's highest peak, the 10,500-foot Pico Duarte. After Duren developed an intestinal illness, the researchers lost their trail, became disoriented and failed to return to their base laboratory on Feb. 22. Colleagues became concerned and launched a search assisted by the national civil defense agency. Martin and Duren were found Feb. 27 in a deep valley — suffering from fatigue, hunger, diarrhea, and minor scratches, but otherwise unharmed — and were taken to a scientific field station about 90 miles from the capital, Santo Domingo, where they are resting. They are expected to resume their research.

Cornell research in the national park has been underway for more than three years sponsored by the Nature Conservancy, and Martin and Duren had been working in the area since January. By coincidence, civil defense director Lora is a graduate of Cornell, where he earned a Ph.D. in natural resources in 1995, and is a scientific collaborator in the Nature Conservancy study.