Puerto Rico Critical Wildlife Areas - Puerto DRNA - Gobierno de ...

42- Salinas Training Area, Salinas, Puerto Rico
Area Description:
Camp Santiago Training Site is a military installation, which supports the different units
of the Puerto Rico National Guard (PRNG) and other branches of the Armed Forces by
providing training areas. Is a federally owned property, which occupies approximately 5,261 ha,
including a 283 ha, cantonment area and a 544 ha impact area for weapons training ranges
(PRNG 2000). Camp Santiago is the largest National Guard training site in the Caribbean and
supports training for all Department of Defense military services.
Eight ecosystems are present within overall Camp Santiago area: 1-Semi-evergreen
forest: dominated by native trees of 15 m height with a lower story of 6 to 9 m. It is distributed
along some moist ravines subject to temporary flooding during rainy season 2-Cactus-thorn
forest. Large cacti and small thorny trees dominate this ecosystem 3-Cactus thorn savanna; cacti
and shrubby vegetation 4-Cliff rock outcrops; grasses and low shrubs, which are indicators of
shallow soils and windy conditions 5-Deciduous woodlands; secondary forest vegetation, and
small to medium trees with heavy vine coverage. 6-Grassland; grass associations like Panicum
maximum and Bothrioclova pertusa 7-Garden urban forest; this ecosystem had a diverse
composition due to the introduction of exotic and ornamental plants. 8-River-wetlands-aquatics;
these areas have longer periods where the soil is saturated with water. The water regime in these
areas is subject to rain events (PRNG 2000).
Ownership/Protection:
Camp Santiago is a federally owned property.
Special Recognition:
This training area was classified as an area of secondary importance to wildlife. It was
included in the 1979 document mainly because the endangered Puerto Rican Plain pigeon and
the rare Puerto Rican Short-eared owl were reported in Camp Santiago. At present, there’s not
enough recent data to confirm or deny this. Until more data are available, we still classified
tentatively the Salinas Training area a CWA of secondary importance.
Wildlife:
Birds
Fifty three bird species are reported for Salinas Training area: Great blue heron Ardea
herodias, Cattle egret Bubulcus ibis, Green heron Butorides virescens, Snowy egret Egretta
thula, Nyctanassa violacea, Turkey vulture Cathartes aura, Red-tailed hawk Buteo jamaicensis,
Merlin Falco columbarius, American kestrel F. sparverius, Peregrine falcon F. peregrinus,
Helmeted meleagris Numida meleagris, Killdeer Charadrius vociferus, Rock pigeon Columba
livia, Common ground dove Columbina passerina, Key west quail-dove Geotrygon chrysia,
Zenaida dove Zenaida aurita, Mourning dove Z. macroura, White-winged dove Z. asiatica,
Mangrove cuckoo Coccyzus minor, Smooth-billed ani Crotophaga ani, Short-eared owl Asio
flammeus, Puerto Rican Screech owl Megascops nudipes, Antillean nighthawk Chordeiles
gundlachi, Antillean Mango Anthracothorax dominicus, Puerto Rican Tody Todus mexicanus,
Puerto Rican Woodpecker Melanerpes portoricensis, Puerto Rican Pewee Contopus
portoricensis, Puerto Rican Flycatcher Myiarchus antillarum, Gray kingbird Tyrannus
dominicensis, Cave swallow Petrochelidon fulva, Northern mockingbird Mimus polyglottos,
Red-legged thrush Turdus plumbeus, Black-whiskered vireo Vireo altiloquus, Puerto Rican
Vireo V. latimeri, Adelaide’s warbler Dendroica adelaidae, Prairie warbler D. discolor,
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