A Tower-High Crane

Suspended from a 100-foot-high tower crane above Panama's Parque National Metropolitano, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) scientists are able to easily measure temperature and humidity at varying levels of the canopy. The Tropical Canopy Access System allows safe, rapid access to canopy species and their habitats and is at present the only one of its kind in the tropics. STRI scientist Alan P. Smith is the creator of the tower crane.