Caño Martín Peña Nature Reserve (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

: ''Reserva Natural Caño Martín Peña'') is a nature reserve in

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the ju ...

located along the 3.75 mile long

Martín Peña Channel The Martín Peña Channel (Spanish: ''Caño de Martín Peña'') is a body of water in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The similarly named Martín Peña is a neighbourhood, with informal housing, adjacent to the channel. The channel runs from San Juan ...

. The nature reserve protects wetlands and an urban mangrove forest which extends throughout the channel between the Los Corozos and San José Lagoons in the east and the

San Juan Bay San Juan Bay ( es, Bahía de San Juan) is the bay and main inlet adjacent to Old San Juan in northeastern Puerto Rico. It is about in length, the largest body of water in an estuary of about of channels, inlets and eight interconnected lagoons. ...

in the west, and between the districts of Santurce in the north and

Hato Rey Hato Rey is a former barrio located in the northwest part of the dissolved municipality of Río Piedras. It now stretches over three barrios, of the municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico: Urban landscape Its name means "king's cattle farm" (' ...

in the south. This reserve is managed by the

Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources The Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (PRDNER) is the executive department of the government of Puerto Rico tasked with protecting, conserving, developing, and managing the natural and environmental resources in Puer ...

(DRNA) and belongs to the larger San Juan Bay National Estuary, the only tropical estuary in the

National Estuary Program In the United States, the National Estuary Program (NEP) provides grants to states where governors have identified nationally significant estuaries that are threatened by pollution, land development, or overuse. Governors have identified a total of ...

network.

History

This nature reserve is bordered by a number of residential areas, such as the Martín Peña neighborhood which formed in 1940 during the Great Depression. This community is constantly threatened by floods from the channel, and from industrial pollution which also threatens the ecosystem of the mangrove forest. The community formed the Caño Martín Peña

Community Land Trust A community land trust (CLT) is a nonprofit corporation that holds land on behalf of a place-based community, while serving as the long-term steward for affordable housing, community gardens, civic buildings, commercial spaces and other community ...

in 2017 which aims to formally legalize the housing in the neighborhood, guarantee safe and sustainable housing, relocating the families that live in critical flooding areas, and to aid and develop the ecological sustainability of the area.

Ecology

The Caño Martín Peña Nature Reserve is home to a

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in several ...

forest which is home to a number of animal and plant species in the middle of the highly urbanized San Juan metropolitan area. All four species of mangrove that occurs in Puerto Rico can be found within the nature reserve: the red mangrove (''

Rhizophora mangle ''Rhizophora mangle'', the red mangrove, is distributed in estuarine ecosystems throughout the tropics. Its viviparous "seeds", in actuality called propagules, become fully mature plants before dropping off the parent tree. These are dispersed b ...

''), black mangrove (''

Avicennia germinans ''Avicennia germinans'', the black mangrove, is a shrub or small tree growing up to 12 meters (39 feet) in the acanthus family, Acanthaceae. It grows in tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, on both the Atlantic and Pacific Coast ...

''), white mangrove ('' Laguncalaria racemosa'') and button mangrove (''

Conocarpus erectus ''Conocarpus erectus'', commonly called buttonwood or button mangrove, is a mangrove shrub in the family Combretaceae. This species grows on shorelines in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Range Locations it is known from in ...

''). The reserve is home to large populations of invasive species such as green iguanas,

lionfish ''Pterois'' is a genus of venomous marine fish, commonly known as lionfish, native to the Indo-Pacific. Also called firefish, turkeyfish, tastyfish, or butterfly-cod, it is characterized by conspicuous warning coloration with red, white, crea ...

caimans A caiman (also cayman as a variant spelling) is an alligatorid belonging to the subfamily Caimaninae, one of two primary lineages within the Alligatoridae family, the other being alligators. Caimans inhabit Mexico, Central and South America f ...

and

alligators An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two Extant taxon, extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis'' ...

. The area is also important to a number of migratory bird species such as the merlin (''

Falco columbarius The merlin (''Falco columbarius'') is a small species of falcon from the Northern Hemisphere, with numerous subspecies throughout North America and Eurasia. A bird of prey once known colloquially as a pigeon hawk in North America, the merlin br ...

''). Some common native bird species include: little egrets ('' Egretta garzetta''), little blue herons ('' Egretta caerulea''), snowy egrets (''

Egretta thula The snowy egret (''Egretta thula'') is a small white heron. The genus name comes from Provençal French for the little egret, , which is a diminutive of , 'heron'. The species name ''thula'' is the Araucano term for the black-necked swan, app ...

''), tricolored heron (''

Egretta tricolor The tricolored heron (''Egretta tricolor''), formerly known as the Louisiana heron, is a small species of heron native to coastal parts of the Americas; in the Atlantic region, it ranges from the northeastern United States, south along the coast ...

''), great egrets (''

Ardea alba The great egret (''Ardea alba''), also known as the common egret, large egret, or (in the Old World) great white egret or great white heron is a large, widely distributed egret. The four subspecies are found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and ...

''), great white herons ('' Ardea herodias occidentalis''), brown pelicans (''

Pelecanus occidentalis The brown pelican (''Pelecanus occidentalis'') is a bird of the pelican family, Pelecanidae, one of three species found in the Americas and one of two that feed by diving into water. It is found on the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to the mout ...

''), yellow-crowned night herons (''

Nyctanassa violacea The yellow-crowned night heron (''Nyctanassa violacea''), is one of two species of night herons found in the Americas, the other one being the black-crowned night heron. It is known as the ''bihoreau violacé'' in French and the ''pedrete coron ...

'') and black-crowned night herons (''

Nycticorax nycticorax The black-crowned night heron (''Nycticorax nycticorax''), or black-capped night heron, commonly shortened to just night heron in Eurasia, is a medium-sized heron found throughout a large part of the world, including parts of Europe, Asia, and N ...

'').

Recreation

The nature reserve is open to visitors who are allowed access through the Enrique Martí Coll Linear Park (''Parque Lineal Enrique Martí Coll'') by entrances located in the San Juan Central Park (''Parque Central de San Juan'') in the western edge of the reserve, the Teófilo "Teo" Cruz Park at the midpoint in Santurce, and the AcuaExpreso ferry

Hato Rey Terminal Hato or HATO may refer to: Places * Hato International Airport, Willemstad, Curaçao * Hato, Curaçao, a village and former plantation in Curaçao * Hato, Santander, a town in Santander Department, Colombia * Hato, San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico, a ...

and Trocadero Diverplex next to the rapid-transit

Tren Urbano The ''Tren Urbano'' ( English: Urban Train) is a fully-automated rapid transit system that serves the municipalities of San Juan, Guaynabo, and Bayamón, in Puerto Rico. The Tren Urbano consists of 16 stations operating on of track along ...

station of

by the '' Choliseo''.

References

External links

Fideicomiso de la Tierra Caño Martín Peña (Spanish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cano Martin Pena Nature Reserve Mangroves Protected areas of Puerto Rico San Juan, Puerto Rico

History

Ecology

Recreation

See also

References

External links