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Vega Baja is a town and municipality located on the coast of north central Puerto Rico. It is north of Morovis, east of Manatí, and west of Vega Alta. Vega Baja is spread over 12 barrios and Vega Baja Pueblo. It is part of the San Juan–Caguas–Guaynabo metropolitan statistical area.
The Cibuco River is a river of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. Part of the river goes through Vega Alta and Corozal municipalities. It is 23.75 miles long. Cibuco River meets Indio River. The river flooded up to 15 feet during Hurricane Maria in some neighborhoods and as late as 2019, the river floods when rains are heavy.
Cambalache State Forest and Reserve is a nature reserve and one of the 20 state forests in the territory of Puerto Rico. The Cambalache State Forest is located in the municipalities of Arecibo and Barceloneta in northern Puerto Rico.
The Northeast Ecological Corridor Nature Reserve (NECNR) refers to an area designated as a protected Nature Reserve located on the northeast coast of Puerto Rico, between the municipalities of Luquillo and Fajardo. Specifically, the lands that comprise the NEC are located between Luquillo's town square to the west and Seven Seas Beach to the east, being delineated by PR Route # 3 to its south and the Atlantic Ocean to its north. It was decreed as a protected area by former Puerto Rico Governor Aníbal S. Acevedo-Vilá in April 2008, a decision reversed by Governor Luis G. Fortuño-Burset in October 2009, although he later passed a law in June 2012 re-designated as nature reserve two-thirds of its lands, after intense lobbying and public pressure. Later, in 2013, Governor Alejandro García-Padilla signed a law declaring all lands within the NEC a nature reserve. The area comprises 2,969.64 acres, which include such diverse habitats as forest, wetlands, beaches, coral communities, and a sporadically bioluminescent lagoon. The Corridor is also home to 866 species of flora and fauna, of which 54 are considered critical elements, meaning rare, threatened, endangered and endemic species classified by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER), some even designated as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). These include, among others, federally endangered species such as the plain pigeon, the snowy plover, the Puerto Rican boa, the hawksbill sea turtle and the West Indian manatee. The beaches along the NEC, which are 8.74 kilometers long are important nesting grounds for the leatherback sea turtle, which starts its nesting season around April each year.
Reserva Natural Punta Cucharas is a nature reserve in Barrio Canas, Ponce, Puerto Rico. It consists of both a land area component as well as an offshore marine area. The land component has an area of 698 cuerdas while the marine component has an expanse of 3,516 cuerdas, for a total area of 4,214 cuerdas. The Reserve consists of mangrove ecosystems, coastal sand dunes, a saline lagoon known as Laguna Las Salinas, open water, and a century-old local community. The lagoon occupies and area of 347,898 m2 Ecological protection is managed and enforced by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources. Eight activities are allowed at the Reserve: scuba diving, boating, fishing, hiking, sun bathing, photography, bird watching and canoeing. Activities prohibited are: Camping, crabbing/trapping, horseback riding, water crafting, and hunting. Pets, ATVs, and fireplaces are also prohibited.
Caño Tiburones is a wetland and nature reserve located in the northern coast of Puerto Rico in the municipalities of Arecibo and Barceloneta. This is one of the largest wetlands in Puerto Rico, covering almost 7,000 acres. A large portion of the swamp, located in Arecibo, is protected as the Caño Tiburones Nature Reserve.
The protected areas of Puerto Rico include an array of natural areas in the archipelago of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, managed by a number of agencies and entities belonging to both federal and commonwealth government bodies. Although Puerto Rico has no natural units in the National Park System, the biodiversity of the island is recognized and protected through a national forest, a national wildlife refuge, a national wilderness, and numerous state parks, nature reserves, state forests, wildlife preserves and other designations on state, municipal and public-private administration levels.
Cueva del Indio is a seaside cave located along limestone cliffs in Islote, Arecibo along Puerto Rico's Atlantic coast. The cave and its surroundings are protected by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA) as the Cueva del Indio Nature Reserve. The cave gets its name after the numerous petroglyphs created by the Taínos.
Humacao Nature Reserve, or the Punta Santiago Nature Reserve, is a nature reserve located in the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico, between the municipalities of Humacao and Naguabo (Río). The 3,000-acre nature reserve was established in 1986 to protect and preserve the remaining Pterocarpus forest ecosystem in the area, along with its surrounding wetlands and mangrove forests.
The Aguas Buenas Cave System is a cave system located in the municipality of Aguas Buenas. The caves and their surrounding forest area are protected by the almost 1,800-acre Aguas Buenas Cave and Caverns System Nature Reserve since 2002, which also extends to the municipalities of Caguas and Cidra. The reserve is important for the number of bat species found in the system, some of which are endangered. In addition to being an important bat preserve, the nature reserve protects an important hydrological basin which is the source of a number of rivers and creeks that form part of the Loiza River basin.
La Cordillera Reef is a nature reserve located 1.5 nautical miles from Fajardo, Puerto Rico consisting of a small archipelago of keys, coral reefs and rocky islets. The nature reserve covers about 18 nautical miles and almost 30,000 acres between Cape San Juan in Cabezas, Fajardo and the island of Culebra. With the exception of Palomino and Lobos Key which are privately owned, all islands, reefs and keys are protected by the marine reserve. The total land area of the reserve is 224 cuerdas. The nature reserve is also important for local fishermen, and eastern coastal municipalities such as Fajardo, Ceiba and Naguabo depend on the reserve for their fishing industries.
The Planadas-Yeyesa Nature Reserve is a protected nature reserve located in the Sierra de Cayey, in the municipalities of Cayey and Salinas in central Puerto Rico. The reserve is located close to the famous Cerro Las Tetas. Two of the most prominent features of the reserve are Cerro Planada, a 2,480 feet high mountain peak, and La Yeyesa, a heavily forested canyon formed by the Lapa River and other streams which feed into the Nigua River. La Yeyesa can be accessed through a lightly trafficked yet moderate trail.
Vega State Forest is a state forest of Puerto Rico located in the municipalities of Vega Alta and Vega Baja. The subtropical moist forest is located in the northern coast of Puerto Rico in the middle of the karst zone known as the Carso Norteño, and it contains features typical of such geography such as sinkholes, caves and mogotes. It was designated a nature reserve in 1952 and it is fully protected by the Puerto Rico Forest laws of 1975. The forest has a total area of 1,150 acres divided into six forest units throughout the municipalities of Vega Alta and Vega Baja.
Caja de Muertos Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in southern Puerto Rico consisting of the islands of Caja de Muertos, Cayo Morrillito, Cayo Berbería, and their surrounding reefs and waters in the Caribbean Sea. This nature reserve was founded on January 2, 1980, by the Puerto Rico Planning Board as recommended by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources with the purpose of preserving the subtropical dry forest ecosystems found within these islands, some important sea turtle nesting sites, and the marine habitats found on their surrounding reefs and waters.
Mona and Monito Islands Nature Reserve consists of two islands, Mona and Monito, in the Mona Passage off western Puerto Rico in the Caribbean. Mona and Monito Islands Nature Reserve encompasses both land and marine area, and with an area of 38,893 acres it is the largest protected natural area in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Much like the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean, the Mona and Monito Islands reserve represents a living laboratory for archaeological, biological, geological, oceanographical and wildlife management research.
La Robleda Natural Protected Area is a 254-acre protected natural area and conservation easement in Cayey, Puerto Rico. La Robleda, meaning 'the oak grove', gets its name from the high concentration of pink manjack trees, locally known as roble blanco, in the area. The pink manjack trees in this nature reserve bloom for a few weeks every year, creating a natural scenic spectacle of pink and white colors in the Sierra de Cayey.
Hacienda Belvedere, also known as Finca Belvedere, is a former 1,649-acre plantation located in Miradero, in the municipality of Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. It was the second largest plantation in the region. There are debating theories as to the foundation and development of Hacienda Belvedere: one proposed by writer Ferreras Pagán states that the plantation was founded by the Cabassa brothers in the late 19th century, while local sources claim that it was founded in the early 19th century by the Monagas family. There is however no conflicting history regarding the hacienda's development during the early 20th century, when the plantation was owned and operated by the Vidal family until 1922, when it was leased to Manuel de Santiago of Hacienda Borinquen.
Lake Luchetti is a reservoir located in the municipality of Yauco, Puerto Rico, in the barrios of Naranjo and Vegas. The lake was formerly known as the Vegas Lake after the barrio it is located in. The lake was created at the junction of the Naranjo River and some minor streams with the Yauco River under Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority's (PREPA) Yauco Project in 1959 and revitalized for further hydroelectric use in 1991. The lake is named after Antonio S. Luchetti, a Puerto Rican engineer who was vital in the development of the hydroelectrical energy system in Puerto Rico.
Caño Martín Peña Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in San Juan, Puerto Rico located along the 3.75 mile long Martín Peña Channel. The nature reserve protects wetlands and an urban mangrove forest which extends throughout the channel between the Los Corozos and San José Lagoons in the east and the San Juan Bay in the west, and between the districts of Santurce in the north and Hato Rey in the south. This reserve is managed by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DRNA) and belongs to the larger San Juan Bay National Estuary, the only tropical estuary in the National Estuary Program network.
References
- ↑ "Reserva Natural Pantano Cibuco". DRNA. 2015-07-09. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
- ↑ "Pantano Cibuco Natural Reserve (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico): Hours, Address". Tripadvisor. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
- ↑ "The German Beach in Puerto Rico You Need to Visit". Condé Nast Traveler. 2017-04-01. Retrieved 2022-01-21.
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