Restore impacted protected forest in Puerto Rico

This report covers the period from June to September 2021 for a total of 1,416 labor hours, 10 workers (2 for beach cleanups, 8 for weeding) from the community near the Guánica State Forest. Despite the difficulties faced this year (earthquakes, pandemic and labor shortages) Protectores de Cuencas has managed to keep works of maintenance of 4 reforestation sites, and public recreational sites with emphasis in coastal areas prone to erosion and wildland fires like: La Jungla beach, PR-333, Jaboncillo beach and Manglillo beach. The access to the recreational areas are open Tuesday to Sunday from 7AM to 5PM, Mondays are closed for maintenance and cleanup.

Since June and July are the months with more visitors to the beach areas Protectores de Cuencas increased the amount of days for beach cleanups. During this reporting period the irrigation of the reforested sites was not necessary since these are the months of rain season. In the other hand, weeding of reforested sites continued.

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

For the next reporting period Protectores de Cuencas is planning 3 reforestations activities (October, November and December) at the PR-333 in areas impacted by wildland fires and the hurricane season of 2017. For these activities Protectores de Cuencas will make an effort to implement COVID-19 protocols in order to intagrate community volunteers and invite other organizations to join us.