Estate Thomas Experimental Forest, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands: Research history and potential

Abstract

Three groups of Native Americans, the Ciboneys, Arawaks, and Caribs, reached the Virgin Islands in pre-Columbian times. Since their discovery by Columbus in 1493, the Virgin Islands have been held or governed by Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, France, the Knights of Malta, Denmark, and the United States. They have also been held or used by groups ranging from estate owners and trading companies to pirates and squatters. European settlement of St. Croix, which began about 1625, resulted in the gradual replacement of that island's native forest with agricultural estates. Estate Thomas, on St. Croix, has had various owners or managers: William Thomas and other individuals from 1749 to 1835, several government entities and two individuals from 1835 to 1963, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service since 1963. The island's plantation economy is now history, and St. Croix has become a popular tourist destination. Sugar production and subsistence agriculture were the major land uses through the early 1950s. In 1953, the Institute of Tropical Forestry (now the International Institute of Tropical Forestry), then located in Rio Piedras, PR, initiated tropical dry forest research throughout St. Croix, much of it on the 60-ha Estate Thomas. For the first 10 years, field experimentation centered around nursery techniques, seed germination, smallleaf mahogany regeneration and stand improvement, plantation establishment including small-leaf mahogany and teak, weed control, the determination of tree and stand growth rates, sawmilling, wood utilization, and the treatment of fence posts. After 1963, the Institute initiated several formal studies, some long term. These included provenance trials of mahogany (both big-leaf and Pacific Coast mahogany), Spanish cedar, and teak, as well as species adaptability trials. Other studies included hybrid mahogany growth, root pruning of mahogany nursery stock, thinning or frilling of unwanted competition in smallleaf mahogany stands, and plantings of the locally rare lignum-vitae. Although recent hurricanes have severely damaged property on St. Croix, Estate Thomas Experimental Forest survives in the middle of St. Croix, only a short distance from Christiansted, the Agricultural Experiment Station, the university, and the island's high school. The Estate remains a green area on a portion of the island otherwise saturated with houses, shopping plazas, and roads. Plans for the future of the Estate highlight its importance as an urban forest with a history in experimental forestry that links St. Croix with Latin America and Southeast Asia. Unparalleled opportunities exist for forestry education and demonstration, and passive recreation. On an island that treasures its colonial past, the unique history of Estate Thomas should be showcased for all Crucians to appreciate and cherish.

Citation

Weaver, P. L. 2006. Estate Thomas Experimental Forest, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands: Research history and potential (General Technical Report IITF-30). Río Piedras, PR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry. 62 pp.