The 150-Year Mission to Reforest Puerto Rico

RÍO PIEDRAS, Puerto Rico—There was a time when all the lushness around here did not exist. The University of Puerto Rico’s botanical garden is arrayed just south of the metropolitan core of San Juan, nestled between the city and a state forest. The variety of plants is stunning—but still far from complete. Just 80 years ago, a moment in the life of forests, . Like much of the rest of the Caribbean, colonial deforestation had reshaped and denuded the island, with massive plantations and the timber trade converting almost every square inch of Puerto Rico. Only the decree of the Spanish Crown preserved any of the old-growth forest, a sylvan remnant of El Yunque in the east, that once covered the island. The gradual return of trees to the island has been a growing but still fragile trend.