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