PUERTO RICO – The State and Private Forestry unit at the International Institute of Tropical Forestry organized the “Tree Management: Storm Damage Webinar” series as part of the Forest Management and Disaster Recovery Training series. The trainings, carried three days a week from March 30-April 8, focused on strengthening theoretical and practical skills to educate the public and promote urban forests’ best management practices. These efforts support communities, landowners and managers at all levels in forestry resilience in Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.  

The webinars were offered in both English and Spanish and covered topics such as:
•    Urban forestry and storm mitigation in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
•    Planning, preparation and tree care before a storm
•    Tree biology, failure concepts and tree assessment
•    Arboricultural equipment and techniques
•    Alert, response and recovery after a storm
•    Urban forestry recovery practical considerations.

All sessions were presented by ISA certified arborists Dr. Artem Treyger and Miguel Berrios. A total of 118 participants from 15 different countries attended the 6-day training series –12 in total– among which were agricultural safety and emergency management staff, community volunteers, public health experts, forest and farm managers, professors, students and other members of the community.

Offering the trainings remotely was an opportunity to reach broader audiences and deliver tools and information to individuals outside the U.S. Caribbean region. Over the past year, the unit has been able to deliver a total of 23 trainings, impacting 473 individuals locally and internationally, with participants from countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and all over the Americas. These initiatives also resulted in the establishment of six different collaborations, extending the work and creating alliances for future trainings.

Surveys were carried on after the most recent training series, with 86% of participants indicating their knowledge on the topics increased after the training series. The unit is looking forward to deliver more training series over the next months, expecting to increase the number of participants, supplying them with informational materials on related topics and continue to assist existing communities the unit already serves within Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.