The only tropical rainforest in the United States is El Yunque National Forest, a popular tourist attraction on the northeastern corner of Puerto Rico. “Hurricane Maria was like a shock to the system…The whole forest is completely defoliated,” Grizell Gonzalez of the International Institute of Tropical Forestry told the New York Times.
The 28,000-acre forest has more than 240 species of trees, two dozen are found nowhere else, and is home to 50 species of birds. “The livelihood of the Puerto Rican parrot, an endangered species living in El Yunque and Río Abajo State Forest, is of special concern. The colorful bright-green bird with a distinctive red stripe above its beak is found only in Puerto Rico and is the only native parrot species in the United States,” said the Times.
Rafael Joglar, a biology professor at the University of Puerto Rico, said population of the the mountain coqui, a small native frog, was severely reduced by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Hurricane Maria could be a mortal threat to the species, he said. “It worries us that it’ll be the next species to disappear in Puerto Rico.”