Puerto Rican forest damage map

The NY Times took a fascinating look at research in PR that is investigating the nature and extent of Hurricane Maria's damage to the island's forests. The article includes an amazing map from Columbia U that shows where the damage occurred. In the east is cluster of high damage in El Yunque National Forest. But there is widespread damage all over. The research estimates that as many as 31 million trees were destroyed or severely damaged.

There is more than just the great map. The article goes into detail about how the researchers are ground truthing Landsat imagery to better understand their data. And they begin to speculate on what long-term changes might look like in that forest.

Paisajismo

With Barack Obama in Puerto Rico, we should hear more in the news about the conflicted nature of PR.  It is American (there are no Puerto Rican immigrants, but lots of displaced Puerto Ricans) but doesn't get a vote and is independent minded.  The United Nations has looked upon PR as one of the last colonies in the world.
 

I got the chance recently to meet some landscape architects from  Puerto Rico who are working to get the profession there up and running.  Until recently, most landscape architectural work on the island (and in the Caribbean) has been performed by firms on the mainland. There are something like 36 licensed landscape architects on the island but there will soon be more since a new MLA program has started at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico. But soon, most of the landscape architects on the island could be recent grads of PUPR, freshly licensed, with minimal experience.  How do you develop a new profession with so little experience?  This will make it easier for them to break from mainland traditions and develop their own professional culture of practice.


They use the Spanish term Paisajismo (or Arquitectura Paisajista) which is more about landscape painting than design. It comes from the French for Paysagisme which is a landscape painter. It is a beautiful metaphor for what we do, and a cultural .  There is even a landscape magazine called Paisajismo.

I didn't get many photos of landscape architecture in PR, but this fence at the Botanic Garden was supposed to be designed by Field Operations. 

Not that you can tell from these tiny photos, but the student work was great.