The Luquillo Mountains

This report presents an overview of the El Yunque National Forest, which is also designated as Luquillo Experimental Forest, in northeastern Puerto Rico. The principal topics include the environmental setting (geology, soils, and climate), environmental gradients, arborescent flora, vertebrate fauna, and forest management (i.e., plantations, silvicultural operations, planning, research, and designated land uses). A chronology from the time of European discovery to the present outlines major events in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, including an early presence of indigenous peoples, exploration for gold, timber extraction, farming, trail and road construction, and recreational developments.

Excerpt from Weather in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico The island is approximately rectangular, 113 miles east to west and about 35 miles maximum north to south. It consists of a low coastal plain, varying from virtually nonexistent up to 12 miles wide, surrounding the mountains which form an almost continuous backbone the length of the island. On the northern side the land surface slopes gradually upward but the southern slope falls off sharply Cerro de Punta is the highest peak, rising feet in the Central Mountains. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Puerto Rico is a mountainous, oceanic island in the American tropics, lying in the path of the northeast trade winds. Although the island is only 110 miles long by 35 wide, vegetation varies from rainforest in the eastern mountains to desert scrub in the southwest. From late 1958 through 1962 the U. S. Army and the Forest Service recorded information on temperature, humidity, wind, light, and rainfall at 13 locations in and near the Luquillo Mountains. Selected aspects of the information collected are summarized in the accompanying 17 tables.