1650 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



More than 330 tree species are native to the island, and many useful 

 species have been introduced. On favorable sites, tree growth is 

 rapid. In 1922 a plantation of casuarina (an imported species) was 

 established near the village of Luquillo on the north side of the island 

 in soil too poor to grow sugar cane. Ten years later the trees in this 

 plantation averaged 6.1 inches in diameter breast high, and 57.5 feet 

 in total height. The volume of wood per acre in various products 

 amounted to 2,678 cubic feet, or 31.2 cords, or 600 poles (42 feet long), 

 or 4,200 fence posts. This plantation had grown during the 10 years 

 at the rate of 3.12 cords each year. 



Another plantation of casuarina on the northern slopes of the 

 Luquillo Mountains reached an average diameter breast high of 2.85 

 inches and an average height of 34 feet in 3 years and 11 months. 

 In the same location mahogany averaged 1.41 inches in diameter and 

 11.1 feet in height at 3 years of age; cedro (Cedrela odorata), one of the 

 most valuable native species, at the age of 2 years and 4 months 

 averaged 1.71 inches in diameter and 12.8 feet in height. Many 

 valuable native species, such as capa bianco, capa prieto, ausubo, 

 laurel sabino, algarrobo, maria, and tabonuco, reach sizes suitable for 

 cabinet work and construction purposes in 30 to 50 years. Fuel wood, 

 charcoal, posts, etc., can be produced in 5 to 15 years from rapid 

 growing native species, such as guaba, guama, and bayahonda, and 

 from introduced species such as black wattle, tulipan, saman, and 

 eucalyptus. 



In the higher portions of the mountains, particularly on the exposed, 

 wind-swept southern slopes, growth is slower, and a forest cover 

 would be more difficult to establish by planting. 



Informed opinion, both local and Federal, holds that lands in the 

 central mountain ranges above 2,000 feet in elevation, totaling some 

 150,000 acres, should be publicly owned and kept perpetually in forest 

 as a source of wood products and for the purpose of water and soil 

 conservation. These lands, now mostly in private ownership, will 

 have to be purchased, and on large areas a new forest can be estab- 

 lished only by planting. Because of their inaccessibility, the greater 

 difficulty and cost of planting them, and the relatively long liquidation 

 period involved, they would hardly be attractive from the standpoint 

 of private forest enterprise. 



To acquire the bulk of these mountain lands and place them under 

 management is perhaps the most important forestry project in the 

 island. The Federal Government should share in it to the extent of 

 expanding the Luquillo National Forest to a unit of 55,000 to 60,000 

 acres, which can be accomplished through the purchase of adjoining 

 lands worn out or abandoned for agriculture. Authority for such 

 purchases to a maximum of 50,000 acres was granted in 1931 by an 

 amendment to the Clarke-McNary Act. A rough estimate of time 

 requirements and ultimate cost suggests a 15-year program, with an 

 appropriation of $100,000 a year for the two purposes of purchase and 

 planting, making an aggregate budget of $1,500,000. This budget 

 should be apportioned $600,000 to the Federal Government, which 

 would purchase some 40,000 acres to supplement the present 14,000 

 acres of the Luquillo National Forest, and $900,000 to the insular 

 government, which would purchase 60,000 or more acres to supple- 

 ment the 25,000 acres of uplands already in insular forests. The costs 

 are figured roughly at $10 per acre, on the average, for the land, and 



