The Most Frequent Questions from Hispanic Forest Landowners

Finca Stammberger Andreu is located in Las Marías, Puerto Rico.

Las Marías, Puerto Rico — During his work with the Hispanic Forest Landowners Outreach (HFLO) Program, landowners most often ask Heriberto Martínez Méndez about accessing government programs and for information about forest management.

Heriberto, Chief Agronomist with mano-Y-ola (mYo), has done one-on-one visits with the 50 landowners in Puerto Rico who are participating in the HFLO Program’s pilot project. These visits help the outreach specialist gain insight into what is important to landowners and how the HFLO can learn to support private forestlands.

Accessing Government Programs and Other Resources

One of Heriberto’s most common topics of conversation with forest landowners involves sharing information about government programs in which landowners can participate. For example, registering a farm with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) gives landowners a farm tract number. Having this number enables landowners to apply for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) benefits such as farm loans, crop insurance, disaster assistance, and conservation programs. The farm number is linked to the land instead of a person so that the farm’s history stays consistent even if its ownership changes.

mYo works with landowners and agencies to accelerate processes such as farm registration so that landowners can access USDA resources.

Finding Information About Forest Management

Additionally, landowners often ask Heriberto for information about forest management, which can be difficult to find. Heriberto said there is much more forest management information available in English than in Spanish.

To help make this information more accessible for landowners, the HFLO Program creates easy-to-read educational materials in Spanish and English about NRCS conservation practices such as agroforestry and planting trees and shrubs. mano-Y-ola plans to continue and grow the materials beyond NRCS programs as the mYo team learns more about landowners’ interests and the barriers they face.

Julisa Andreu Nazario and her husband have plans to expand the number of cacao trees on their farm.

Hispanic Forest Landowner Spotlight: Julisa

In Las Marías, Puerto Rico, Julisa Andreu Nazario is creating her ideal farm by planting 20 cacao trees at a time. This goal is set based on Julisa’s available time. Julisa, who lives in Mayagüez, is one of the participants in the HFLO Program in Puerto Rico.

To date, Julisa and her husband have established 25 cacao trees using contour planting, and they aim to continue their expansion by planting an additional 20 to 25 more cacao trees each month. They have the capacity for 3,000 trees on their farm, Finca Stammberger Andreu.

Julisa, who has a background as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), has taken courses to learn more about agriculture and is following Heriberto’s guidance as her farm grows. While Julisa and her husband continue planting and caring for their trees, mYo is working with her and the Farm Service Agency to streamline the farm registration process so that she can apply for financing through government programs and protect her crops from risks such as natural disasters.

Since it will take at least two more years for the first cacao trees to start producing, Julisa and her husband have not yet earned any income from the farm. Instead, they rely on their earnings from Julisa’s business endeavors, including a beauty salon and buying and selling properties, and her husband’s income.

“I have many projects, but cacao (planting) is something I will continue with,” Julisa said.

For more background about the HFLO Program’s pilot project in Puerto Rico, check out our January 2024 and June 2023 newsletters.

Coming Soon!

This year, the HFLO Program has the privilege of hosting a series of interactive workshops in Puerto Rico. The workshops are for the 50 participants in the HFLO Program in Puerto Rico and include topics from agroforestry to bird identification. We will be sharing more news about the workshops in the coming months!