within these forests. About 2,500,000 cubic feet 

 of timber liave been removed from the forests in 

 order to harvest mature trees and to eliminate in- 

 ferior trees. About 7,500 acres of forest liave been 

 impi'oved in tliis way. An additional 22,000 acres 

 of deforested lands have been planted with trees. 

 Seven recreation areas within these forests have 

 been built for the use of the jKiblic. These im- 

 provements represent a total investment of not less 

 than $15,000,000. 



The Federal and Puerto Rican governments 

 have cooperated in encouraging forestry on pri- 

 vate lands as well. The Agricultural Extension 

 Service of the University of Puerto Rico and the 

 Federal Soil Conservation Service advise farmers 

 on forestry techniques. Tlie Commonwealth Di- 

 vision of Forests, Fisheries, and Wildlife (the suc- 

 cessor to the Puerto Rico Forest Service) and the 

 United States Forest Service cooperate in the pro- 

 duction of forest tree nui-sery stock for distribu- 

 tion to farmers. Tlie United States Forest Service 

 has since 1939 conducted research in forest man- 

 agement and utilization in Puerto Rico, and since 

 1955 its primai-y function lias been forest research, 

 carried out at the Institute of Tropical Forestry 

 in Rio Piedras. 



The task of conserving and making productive 

 Puerto Rico's forest lands (fig. 4) is far from 

 completed. More than 500,000 acres within the 

 island are not well suited to other than fore.st 

 crops. Present public forest lands under protec- 

 tion and management constitute only about 16 per- 

 cent of this area. Almost none of tlie private 

 lands are under forest management, and more 

 than half of them are completely deforested. 

 More serious still is that substantial areas of such 

 land are subject to shifting cultivation, with at- 

 tendant erosion and sedimentation of reservoirs 

 downstream. The placing of Puerto Rico's forest 

 lands under good management is a task requiring 

 more research, extension, and, in some areas, pub- 

 lic acquisition of lands. 



In the Virgin Islands a few old laws exist re- 

 garding the protection of trees along streams, but 

 in the course of time these islands, both the British 

 and United States, became almost completely de- 

 forested to the tops of the mountains. However, 

 in the United States islands extensive secondary 

 forests have developed with tlie decline in popula- 

 tion and agriculture which took place in the past 

 50 years. 



Possibly the outstanding early development 

 which is of significance to forestry was the intro- 

 duction of Dominican mahogany (Swiefenia ma- 

 hagoni) into St. Thomas and St. Croix. This 

 introduction, judging by the size of some of the 

 older trees on St. Croix, must have been made at 

 least 200 years ago. A planting in the hills south- 

 west of Christ iansted, St. Croix, has given rise to 

 natural regeneration of mahogany covering some 

 200 adjacent acres, suggesting that this valuable 

 species might be introduced into secondary forests 

 elsewhere in the islands. 



A limited government program of tree plant- 

 ing was carried out in St. Thomas in the early 

 1930's, administered from Puerto Rico. Un- 

 doubtedly some of the younger mahoganies on 

 that island are a result. Nevertheless, this species 

 is relatively unknown in St. John and Tortola. 



A new forest rv program is now underway in the 

 Ignited States Virgin Islands, sponsored by the 

 Federal Government through the Virgin Islands 

 Corporation. Trees are being propagated for co- 

 operative planting on private lands, a sawmill has 

 been set up to utilize mature trees, and new species 

 are being tested as to their adaptability to local 

 growing conditions. Estate Thomas Experimental 

 Forest was establislied on St. Croix in 1963. 



In the British Virgin Islands the Protection of 

 Trees and Conservation of Soil and Water Ordi- 

 nance of 1954 laid the basis for the protection of 

 areas requiring tree growth as a protection for soil 

 and water resources. That government contem- 

 plates initial concentration on the protection of 

 intermittent stream beds by tree planting. 



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