1646 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



relation to present and future local needs; (2) damage by fire, past 

 and present, on forest and tundra lands; (3) localities in which fire 

 protective measures are justified; (4) kind, size, and cost of the pro- 

 tection organization needed. 



This reconnaissance survey of interior Alaska, necessary as a 

 preliminary to establishing organized fire protection in this territory, 

 would be made largely by airplane, and would require about 3 years. 

 The survey and the fire-preventive organization are estimated to cost 

 $50,000 a year. 



Fire protection is the only important forestry measure for the 

 interior forest which appears to be justifiable at this time. It is 

 doubtful if any system of intensive forest management will be justifi- 

 able in view of the slow growth and small size of the trees and the 

 restricted markets for a long time to come. 



PUERTO RICO 



By R. M. EVANS, Assistant Regional Forester Eastern Region 



Puerto Rico is very sparsely wooded. The impenetrable forest 

 jungles, commonly associated with the West Indies, are so scarce that 

 one may cross and recross the island without seeing them, for, with 

 the exception of those in the Sierra de Luquillo, they are tucked away 

 in the more inaccessible places into which few except the "jibaro" 

 ever penetrate. The island is, however, by no means devoid of wood 

 growth. Around almost every habitation there are groups of trees, 

 and numerous scattered trees dot the open landscape. The protective 

 cover of shade trees of the coffee plantations gives a decidedly forested 

 appearance to many localities. 



Puerto Rico presents an unusual combination of physical and 

 economic conditions. The insular and geographic position of the 

 country, its small size, its restricted area of level lands, and its density 

 of population, to mention but a few of many influences, have occa- 

 sioned unusual demands on the forests. The same cycle of change is 

 found here as is recorded by civilization everywhere a profligate 

 waste and despoliation of the bounties of nature, followed by an acute 

 need for what has been destroyed. 



Puerto Rico is the eastermost and smallest of the Greater Antilles. 

 It is approximately 100 miles long and 35 miles wide and is remarkably 

 rectangular in outline. Its area is approximately 3,435 square miles, 

 or 2,200,000 acres. Puerto Rico and the other islands of the Antilles 

 and Central America and northern South America were formerly, 

 according to geologists, a united and distinct continental land mass 

 the Antillean Continent. 



Puerto Rico embraces three main physiographic regions a central 

 mountainous core of volcanic origin, an elevated area of coral lime- 

 stone surrounding the mountainous portion, and the coastal plain. 

 The central mountainous area occupies by far the largest portion of 

 the island; it is also the most important from the standpoint of the 

 island's forests. Viewed from the sea, it presents a rugged and ser- 

 rated aspect; numerous peaks and summits, with no definite crest line, 

 rise from a general mass, which has been cut by erosion into lateral 

 ridges, separated by deep, steep-sided gorges. 



