Bill Clinton: “I rise to introduce the Caribbean National Forest Act of 2004, along with Senator Schumer. The Caribbean National Forest…”

“I rise to introduce the Caribbean National Forest Act of 2004, along with Senator Schumer. The Caribbean National Forest Act designates approximately 10,000 acres of the Caribbean National Forest (CNF) as the El Toro Wilderness. The El Toro Wilderness would be the only tropical forest wilderness in the U.S. National Forest system. The CNF has long been recognized as a special area, worthy of protection. The Spanish Crown proclaimed much of the current CNF as a forest reserve in 1824. One hundred years ago, President Theodore Roosevelt reasserted the protection of the CNF by designating the area as a forest reserve. Located 25 miles east of San Juan, the CNF is a biologically diverse area. Although it is the smallest forest in the national forest system, the CNF ranks number one in the number of species of native trees with 240. In addition, the CNF has 50 varieties of orchids and over 150 species of ferns. The area is also rich in wildlife with over 100 species of vertebrates, including the endangered Puerto Rican parrot. The only native parrot in Puerto Rico, they numbered nearly one million at the time that Columbus set sail for the New World. Today there are fewer than 35 of these parrots.”