Hi James,

I spent a month and a half at El Verde, the research station in the El
Yunque National Forest. I had just finished my undegrad degree and was
assisting two Ph.D. students with their fieldwork. One student was
studying crayfish populations [literally tag & recapture] while the
other was modeling recovery from Hurricane Hugo. They had set up the
Big Grid, a  large permanent plot to study forest response to
disturbance.

 We went all over the island that summer and climbed El Yunque. Many
fun times. The things I remember best were the ripe mangoes in the
forest, a stream side tree that produced a small fruit with thin,
crispy & slightly sweet flesh like a pear, but smelled like perfume,
and the large leaves of the pioneer tree species, Cecropia. And, if a
coqui got into the kitchen or your bunk room, you would almost go deaf
from its call until you released it back into the wild.

 PR and the forest is pretty cool.

 neil

On Mar 29, 3:50 pm, James Parton <[email protected]> wrote:
> ENTS,
>
> I was surprised to find a tropical rainforest in the US national
> forest system. I would have thought if we would have had one anywhere
> it would have been in Hawaii. They might have a state forest though.
>
> Has anyone ever visited El Yunque in Puerto Rico?
>
> http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/caribbean/
>
> http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/caribbean/about/index.shtml
>
> http://www.solboricua.com/elyunque/
>
> http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/caribbean/natural-resources/index.shtml
>
> http://www.topuertorico.org/reference/yunque.shtml
>
> James Parton
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