Restore impacted protected forest in Puerto Rico

This report covers the period from November 2020 to January 2021. These funds have covered the costs of 424 labor hours of 10 workers, 1 water truck and 2 pickup trucks for the maintenance and irrigation of 4 reforestation sites inside the Guanica State Forest with emphasis in coastal areas prone to erosion and wildland fires like: La Jungla beach, PR-333, Jaboncillo beach and Manglillo beach. Thanks to your kind donations our organization was able to hire two aditional employes that have been in charge of providing access and maintaining the recreational facilities of Jaboncillo and La Jungla Beach. These employees are part of the community near the Guanica State Forest, and it is a big success to be able to integrate community members into the day to day works to maintain this highly visited public natural protected area. The access to the recreational areas are open Tuesday to Sunday from 7AM to 5PM, Mondays are closed for maintenance and cleanup. 

Part of the funds are also being used for the purchase of materials (soil, fertilizer, compost, etc) for a community reforestation re-scheduled for May 2021, when the wildland fires season end. Equipment and materials are in the process of purchase and vegetative material to be planted is already propagated and ready for the reforestation on site.

On January 2021, as the precipitation was diminishing, irrigation and weeding of planted trees along PR-333 was reestablished once every two weeks. The dry season causes invasive grases to dry and turn into fine fuel increasing the risk of wildland fires. Weeding works are crucial to reduce the amount of fuel available (dry weeds) and create a fire break area to protect the reforestation sites and the natural protected forest.

The attached images include the work shedule by month showing irrigation, weeding, reforestation and cleanup days for this reporting period.