Many of the island’s environmental protection efforts are overseen by the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, whose headquarters is based in Casa de Ramón Power y Girault (155 Calle Tetuán, San Juan, 787/722-5834, Tues.-Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.), where visitors can peruse exhibits and pick up printed information on its projects.
In Vieques, the biggest environmental concern surrounds the ongoing cleanup of the grounds once occupied by the U.S. Navy, which stored munitions and performed bombing practice on the island. After years of protest by local residents, the Navy withdrew in 2003, but much of its land (18,000 acres) is still offlimits to the public while efforts to clear it of contaminants and the live artillery that still litters the ocean floor are under way. The cancer rate in Vieques is 27 percent higher than that of the main island, and many blame it on the presence of unexploded artillery leaking chemicals into the water and the release of chemicals into the air when the artillery is detonated, which is the Navy’s way of disposing of it.
Read more about the Puerto Rican parrot on the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service website.×Excerpted from the Third Edition of Moon Puerto Rico.