Leadership

The Friends of the Pterocarpus Forest

The Friends of the Pterocarpus Forest raise 60% of Forest’s annual budget and are responsible for the work essential to keeping the Forest beautiful and available to the public for passive recreation, education, and scientific research.

We are an advocacy and support group of concerned citizens who came together in early 2011, committed to preserving, protecting, and promoting the Pterocarpus Forest at Palmas for future generations.

Once common in Puerto Rico’s coastal wetlands, the remaining Pterocarpus forests are few, widely inaccessible, fragmented, and in danger of disappearing altogether.

The Forest restoration project, including the construction of a new 3/4-mile, elevated Boardwalk and the establishment of permanent conservation, education, and research programs is an undertaking of the Palmas del Mar Homeowners Association (PHA) and the Friends of the Pterocarpus Forest (incorporated as the nonprofit PHA Pterocarpus Forest, Inc.).

It is a community effort that represents an opportunity to preserve a unique, increasingly rare ecosystem, and make it available so that the public, in general, can enjoy this invaluable recreational, educational and ecological resource now and in the future.

The Friends of the Pterocarpus Forest Raise Funds for:

Sustainability and Vision

Conservation and habitat restoration.

On-site and online educational programming, including lectures, special exhibits, and tours.

Other Forest public-benefit undertakings.

Board of Directors Friends of the Pterocarpus Forest
(PHA Pterocarpus Forest, Inc.)

Officers

Gabriel Espasas

President
Retired

Manuel Morales, Jr.

Vice President
Honorary Consul of Japan

Antonio Maldonado López

Secretary
Executive Director Palmas del Mar Homeowners’ Association

Juan Bravo III

Teasurer
CEO Ranger American

Members

Mary Jo Espasas

Ron Butt

Mrs. Barbara Geider

Mr. Peter Palermo

Servando Díaz

Martin Wiseman

Luis Ortiz Segura

James Cohen

Jon Brightman

Mrs. Geraldine Bloomberg

Ms. Rita Molinelli, Esq.

Joanne Cohen

David L. Oschman

Mr. Julio Bagué

Become a volunteer ?

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.