Welcome to El Yunque
Greetings,
website viewers from all over the world -- As a "Borinqueño" (a
native son of Puerto Rico) I encourage you to visit us and take full advantage
of
El Yunque's many exciting features -- our island's premier eco-tourism location
is the only tropical rain forest in the U.S. National Forest system!
The moment
that you enter El Yunque you will discover that our friendly, professional
staff is dedicated to the Forest Service mission of “Caring for the
land and serving people.”
El Yunque has been
a Federal Forest Reserve for over a century – we celebrated our centennial
anniversary, our first “Century
of Service” to the public in 2003.
We are constantly working to ensure
the sustainability of El Yunque's ecosystems and to secure its urban
interface -- encroaching development on the Forest's
border, and the impending threat of global climate change are among the
difficult list of challenges El Yunque faces. We are working closely
with government
and the public to mutually discover and then implement changes that will
ensure your future enjoyment of this unique and irreplaceable tropical
jewel.
I hope to have the chance to greet you personally when you visit
El Yunque.
Hasta pronto (see you soon)
Pablo Cruz,
Forest Supervisor
What's New?
• On Our Website...
In 2009 we begin a new monthly series: Endemic Plant Facts. Each
month this series, a companion to our popular monthly Wildlife Facts series,
will
describe a different tropical tree, shrub or flowering plant species that
is "endemic" (not
occurring naturally anywhere else) to Puerto Rico's Luquillo Mountains,
the location of the El Yunque National Forest. Sadly, some of the plants and
trees we will describe are on the US Fish & Wildlife Service's endangered
species list, so we will include vital conservation information about each
endangered plant species.
Check out our first Endemic (and endangered) plant species: Sintenis' Holly
(Ilex sintenisii) beginning this month. (we thought a holly species would be
appropriate for the holiday season!)
We hope that you will find this new series as exciting and interesting as
our Wildlife Facts series that begins its seventh year of publication this
year!
Please CLICK HERE to share any comments you may have about this new series.
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CAMBIO
CLIMÁTICO Y EL YUNQUE decargue aquí la presentación
(English translation coming soon)
CLICK HERE to read
the latest edition of El Bosque Pluvial, our El Yunque National Forest Newsletter.
Get up to date on the latest happenings in America's only tropical rainforest!
Related Website Links:
The New York Botanical Garden
(NYBC) has recently digitized the Flora Borinqueña
Digital Herbarium and Library - a virtual copy of the vitally important scientific
papers of the botanist team of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Britton. Beginning
over a century ago, the Britton team, who co-founded the NYBC, made numerous "expeditions" to
Puerto Rico during which they collected over 10.000 species of tropical flowering
plants, lichen, fungi and algae, many from the Luquillo mountains. Over the
years they recorded 38 new endemic species. El Yunque's famous Mt. Britton
was named in their honor.
This NYBG site features the Britton's complete "Botany of Porto (sic)
Rico and the Virgin Islands" (1923-1930) as well as many beautiful, cross-referenced
watercolor illustrations by Frances Horne from Nathaniel Britton’s unpublished "Flora
Borinqueña." Horne later illustrated Little, Wadsworth and Marrero's "Árboles
Comunes de Puerto Rico y las Islas Vírgenes" (1968).
Click here to
go to directly to the NYBG page.
America's Rain Forest Electronic Field Trip
Teachers and Home Schooling Parents: this link takes you
to the America's Rain Forests
Education Project - an exciting "electronic field trip," free
lesson plans, a downloadable recording of the original broadcast, and lots
more useful information about temperate and tropical rain forests in America.
• At the El Portal Rainforest Center…
Come and see the exciting new Nature Dioramas at our "Understanding
the Forest" pavilion, at the center's
upper level. Don't miss these amazingly life-like wildlife figures displayed
in their typical rain-forest habitats. • At the Forest’s Eastern National Bookstores…
Stay tuned for details
Upcoming Events
Scouting Trails Program is for EVERYONE!
This program is a gift from the Boy Scouts to ALL
kids to celebrate the Centennial of the World Scouting Program. CLICK
HERE to
learn more. (Please note that the Scouting Trails Website is in Spanish).
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