USFWS_Gonzalez_CooperativeAgreement

8/9/2019 USFWS_Gonzalez_CooperativeAgreement

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'... ; r f , ~ ." United States Department of the Interi;orFISH AND .WILDLIFE SERVICE

1815,.' Century Boulevard Atlanta, Georgia 30345

In Reply Refer To: FWSIR4IBAlCGS September 4, 2008

Mr. Victor Luis Gonzalez President Calle Granada 2429 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00913 Dear Mr. Gonzalez:Enclosed please find an executed copy of Cooperative Agreement No. 401818J565. Also enclosedis a copy of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Project Officer Delegation memorandum for your reference,as well as Standard Form 269 and 270 for your use under this agreement.I f you have any questions concerning this action, please contact Janice McNeill, JamisonProfessional Services Contract Specialist, at the above address, Suite 310, or at telephone number(404) 679-4056.

Sincerely,

Contracting and Grant Services DivisionEnclosures

TAKE PRIDE Rfo INAMERICA ~ a : a (


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AGREEMENT NO.: 401818J565 "CHARGE CODE: 41430-1124-0000 W5 (FY08) AMOUNT: $7,500.00 DUNS NO: 161035931 FAADS: 72-76740-San Juan 069-Huacao-00930-98-07/01l2008-12131/2009-to implement the Punta Flamenco Forest Restoration-22 COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

BetweenU.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

And PUERTO RICO LAND AND FRUIT

I. COOPERATNE AGREEMENT RECIPIENT:Puerto Rico Land and FruitMr. Victor L. GonzalezCalJe Granada 2429San Juan, Puerto Rico 00913Recipient Class: Private, For ProfitCatalog ofFederal Domestic Assistance Number: 15.630

II. AUTHORITY:This agreement between the U.S. Departmentof the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service(hereinafter referred to as the "Service") and the Puerto Rico Land and Fruit Company(hereinafter referred to as the ''Recipient'') is hereby entered into under the authority ofthe Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (48 Stat. 401, as amended; 16U.S.C. 661 et seq.).

m. PURPOSE:This Cooperative Agreement is being implemented in order to complete the projectentitled Punta Flamenco Forest Restoration. The purpose of the project is to restorenative dry forest on approximately 6.4 acres of land within the owner's approximately109 acre property in Culebra, Puerto Rico. The practices to be used include dry forestreforestation and forest stand improvement. The recipient intends to plant a number of

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native trees and other plant species have been extirpated from the island, or have suchlimited distributions there, that they are unlikeiy to recolonize their ranges unlessreintroduced by man.This project will take the first steps toward restoring the native forest ecosystem in aprivate propertyadjacent to a National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in Culebra. The propertyis a farm of approximately 109 acres that consists of dry forest dominated by exoticgrasses, trees, and bushes (Figure 1). Within the defined project areas specific invasiveexotic plants will be removed, and the areas win be reforested with native tree species. - . ~ Most of the project consists of reforesting the margins of identified e x i s t i n g m ~ withinthe property with native tree species. Other areas for exotic removal and forest standimprovement include the area between a recently ~ ! J : i J ~ , s t e e p road and the main accessroad, an area around an existing famt pond, areas near the-helipad in the northeast part ofthe property, part of the old fuel depot, and a strip of forest near the beach (north of thesmall pier). In total, an area of about 6.4 acres will be treatCci with exotic invasive plantremoval, and reforestation with native trees," The fann pond will be refurbished to be, used as an irrigation water sourCe, as needed. Figure 2 defines the approximate projectareas. Additional effort will be made to locate suitable sites within the property and

\ ", I'" establish a new population ofPeperomia wheeleri, a federally listed plant species.

Figure 1. farmboundari

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V. SCOPE OF EFFORT:A. The following are components or activities of the project:

1. The 1 1 1 ~ ~ ! ofroad segments (identified below and in Figure 2) will be cleanedofapproximately 400 undesirable tree and bush species for 5 meters to either sideusing hand tools and chain saws, as identified in the proposal, and be replantedwith about 800 desirable native tree species as determined by the recipient. Asmall tractor with backhoe or auger may be USed in the planting. The road .segments total about 2,209 linear meters and are:a. From the entrance booth to the helipad (1,160 m)h. From road (a) to the gate of the NWR (129 m) .c. Road to the pond (95 m)d. Road to the communication tower (575 m) :, . l . : ~ \ !}.l : : ~ ) ( .,' , ,e. Steep road recently stabilized with concrete (70 m). Additional area betweenthe existingentriUiee roadan,fthe very steep road will be treated similarly.f. Additional area near the helipad will receive similar treatment.' ", ... ' ,

2. The area identified in the proposal as the Sea Grape belt. This is a strip ofvegetation b e h i n d . t l ! e _ ~ n a Maritima T e ~ 1 r e on the identified beach strip (fromthe pier north to the property boundary). All clearing and planting will be doneby hand. , . , , 'a. Exotic tree removal is limited in this site to about 30 mesquite and acacia, andwill be conducted using hand tools and chain saws.b. About 60 native trees suitable for the site as identified in the proposal will beplanted in the area. ' 3, Fonner fuel depot: a. Part of the area will eventually be used as a tree nursery. -.b. Approximately 30 native trees will be planted in the area.

4. Farm pond restoration and reforestation:a. The farm pond will be cleared of invasive exotic vegetation. This mayinvolve some mechanized sediment removal specifically for this element.b. The pond edges will be replanted with Stahlia monosperma, a federally listedendangered tree species. ," f \ i5. The planted trees will be maintained, including watering, weeding, and othermaintenance activities. Herbicide, ifused, will only be applied through a wipeon or injection technique (no spray).

B. The Service will provide or conduct the following:/1. The sum ofS7,500.00to cover the cost ofproducing 500 native t r e ~ J r o m seed l-?(at $15.00 for trees to be grown out in 3-5 gallonpots)-:-- - - : : ~ - : f ~ . . .- _2. Technical assistance as requested and as biologist time pennits. For general p l . ~ . \


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approval, the Service Project Officer shall forward the payment r e ~ u e s t and one copyto the Budget, Planning and Financial Services Officer for processmg.

C. Should the Recipient be unable to complete the provisions of this agreement, allmonies provided by the Service which prove to be cancelable obligations orunallowable costs in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)Subpart 31.2 or the approved budget, shall be refunded to the Service.D. This agreement is intended to support a particular project for a specific period of. time., Any portion of funds advanced to the Recipient that are not expended at thecompletion of the period of perfonnance of this agreement shaH be returned to theService, along with any interest earned on that amount.

X. ADMINISTRATNE OFFICER:The Administrative Officer for this agreement is:Janice McNei1l Jamison Professional Services Contractor U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1875 Century Boulevard, Room 310 Atlanta, Georgia 30345 Phone: (404) 679-4056 Fax: (404) 679-4057 Email: [email protected]

XI. PROmCT OFFICERS:A. Beverly Yoshioka

Coordinator, Coastal Program in the Caribbean U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceP.O. Box 491 Boquer6n, Puerto Rico Phone: (787) 851-7297 ext. 227 E-mail: [email protected] B. Mr. Victor Gonz8lez Puerto Rico Land and Fruit Calle Granada 2429

San Juan, Puerto Rico 00913 Phone: 787-977-5650 E-mail: [email protected]

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. /\ X B. The Recipient is responsible for obtaining any necessary permission from privateproperty owners to complete the proposed work.\oJ C. The Recipient remains obligated to all other applicable Federal, State, and localstatutes, ordinances, and permitting requirements.

D. The Service will be acknowledged, as a contributing partner, on any signageinstalled regarding the project. Any pUblications or presentations produced as aresult of this project will also acknowledge the Service.E. The Service's liability will be governed by the F e 4 e r a I T o r t C ~ s t\c:;t (28 U.S.C.

2761 et seq.). The extent of the Recipient's liability shall be governed by the lawsof the Commonwealth ofPuerto Rico.

F. Recipients ofgrants/cooperative agreements and/or sub-awards are encouraged toadopt and enforce on-the-job seat belt use and policies and programs for theiremployees when operating company-owned, rented, or personally-owned vehicles.These measures include, but are not limited to, conducting education, awareness,and other appropriate programs for their employees about the importance ofwearingseat belts and the consequences ofnot wearing them.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties hereto have caused this Cooperative Agreement to beexecuted as of the date therein written.

U ' S ' ~ E P A RT OF THE INTERIORFISH RYleEB Y : ~ _ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ____________

TITLE: Ii 'ttt TITLE: ~ ~ . G n I I " " " " ' " DATE: AvrJ 2-(', )H I DATE: 0 ? j"y;/


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To Kerri Heywood/R4!FWS/DOI@FWSee Beverly Yoshioka/R4/FWS/DOI@FWS

beeSubject Fw: 401818J565, Puerto Rico Land and Fruit

Kerri,Would please send a scanned copy of the full document to Beverly.Thanks,Don----- Forwarded by Don Caider/R4/FWS/DOi on 05!20/2009 05:20 PM ---.

Beverly Yoshioka/R4/FWSIDO I To Don Calder/R4/FWS/DOI@FWS05/19/200901 :57 PM ec

Subject 401818J565, Puerto Rico land and Fruit

Hello Don,I recently met with one of the ~ Q l Q I Q y e e s of the landowner in the above referenced project, and I hadbrought a copy of the Cooperative Aoreemeot with me for bim, only to realize that the even pages werenot includs:.,d. Apparently the final signed copy that was sent to me only included the odd pages (probablyadouble-sided copying glitch. Would it be possible to get a full coPy of the agreement so I can provideone to the employee who is in charge of this project, and have a full, signed copy for my f i l e ~

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Beverly To Don Calder/R4/FWS/D01@FWSYoshioka/R4/FWS/DOI ee05/19/200901 :57 PM bee

Subject 401818J565, Puerto Rico Land and FruitHello Don,I recently met with one of the employees of the landowner in the above referenced project, and I hadbrought a copy of the Cooperative Agreement with me for him, only to realize that the even pages werenot included. Apparently the final signed copy that was sent to me only included the odd pages (probablya double-sided copying glitch. Would it be possible to get a full copy of the agreement so I can provideone to the employee who is in charge of this project, and have a full, signed copy for my files?Thank you,Beverly Yoshioka


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P. O. Box 750

Isla de Culebra, PR 0077 51-877-77CORAL / 1-877-77(2-6725)(o) 787-556-6234 (f) 530-618-4605

@email: [email protected]

26 Feb 2010: Notes of document leak of USFWS Cooperative Agreement andNext Actions Questions.

To date we have yet to receive this Cooperative Agreement Specifically requested byANDA attorneys using reference number through FOIA on the 27th of September, 2009.A partial release of documents was madebut not from 2005 when impacts to this areawere first definedThis revealed that the release of this cooperative agreement may be

delayed because no one has a complete copy. Local (Boquern Field) office indicatesin emails found in the partial release of documents requested through FOIA, they didnot have a complete copy of the agreement available upon their site visit where sheindicates she met with workers, and not with the expert that was supposed to besupervising this mess. I have since changed our request from copies to certified copiesof this agreementbut I dont think they have in any of their filesa complete copy ofthe cooperative agreement with Gonzalez.

Emails from FOIA reveal that it is a Don Calder or Kerri Heywood of region 4 office, whowould have the complete signed copies in the Regional Office.if it does exist. I thinksomeone in the Boquern office made a mistake and if they actually signed, they signed

in incomplete agreement.

Page 3: Project defines work on private property. Agency was notified in advance bydurable power of attorney of other land owners, and former mayor of Culebra, thatGonzalez was not the sole owner of property. Also many areas reforested were insidethe public domain of the beachwithout benefit of physical markers on the beach.The roads they agree to reforest run along lagoon and coastal watersThis agreement was signed after agency had many letters of concern issued about thisdeveloper for blocking public access areas for the previous years and illegallyconstruction of bird tower patterned from USFWS bird towers but made from pouredconcrete and over access roads to block access yet againhese constructions were

found to be illegal and demolished.

Project says invasive exotics will be removed.when it introduces unspecified exoticsin the few pages we have seen of this agreement.

The pond was constructed or refurbished? Not sure there..they dug a pond on theupper most part of one of the boulder forest river bedsthis is why it fails to holdwaterand why it causing irreparable harmThe entire area is RS Rockland volcanic soil that is protected by a very low densityzoning whose best use as defined by our local Planning Board is C for Conservation.At the site visit USFWS decides it may be a good idea to pour concrete in the pond!


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USFWS is particular about any species coming into Culebra that is not alreadythereHere they say reforestation of native treesthey also say species that havebeen extirpated, but dont say which species and reference historical presence.

The endangered and endemic P. wheeleriwas found around the boulder forest at theHelapad destroyed by Gonzalez without permits and a large caterpillar that pushed the

boulders down the side of the mountain now posing a chronic threat to folks hiking downthe watershed to monitor Resacas turtle nesting populations.

I am confident there should be more in this record from the previous refuge managerregarding this issue not released in the first batch of FOIA documents

Page 5.Project targets margins of road to 5m.5m from the margins of some of these roadsplaces trees in the water, (which indeed some of them were at the sea grape line of thebeachafter other sea grapes were removed.Many trees died in the salt or were blown out into the sea during heavy rains. On this

page it references 800 desirable species determined by the recipientno mention ofendangered species.1-e, references illegal road poured in concrete by Gonzalez as steep road recently

stabilized by concreteNo reforestation as described, has been done in any of these areas

2. Sea Grape belt references Zona Maritima Terrestre in Spanish.this was writtenlocally.The area planted was in center of dry river beds directly on the beach, and we havebefore after photos of trees being blown out to sea with a heavy rain. They have apaper ZMT on file and the planting even violated their description which included a road

that did not exist but was constructed over powerful river beds/boulder forests..

b. 60 trees were no way planted

3. Former fuel depot:Here it says part of this area will eventually be used as a tree nursery when in section5 it specified that this is what federal funds were allocated for. To date (feb 26, 2010)there is no tree nursery.We believe adult endangered exotics were introduced andplantedbut only a few (4 - 6) and only in center of road. It is safer to grow them fromseed. This agreement expired but was likely extended another year from dec 2009.

Replanting was not of trees grown from seeds as it indicates in section B - 1 .the startand stop dates of this agreement are not practical.

To date no replanting around the pond of Stahlia monosperma.

The tree nursery hanger he constructed at top of the hill covers tons of constructionequipment and possibly was constructed using these federal funds for a tree nurseryproject..The roof is not transparent.it is no tree nursery. His workers on the site saidhe is constructed a house underneath it! There are no permits on file for this with localgovernment.


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We attached excerpts to a letter sent to the agency indicating that P wheeleri was foundaround the boulder forest helipad. Beverly used confusion about the documentelectronically faxed to redundantly copy some attachments for the record and to discardthe copies of the EIS discussing P wheeleri around the boulder forest. This is not thefirst time we put this into the recordbut no documents were released complainingabout violations from Gonzalez from 2005

NEXT ACTIONS: We NEED a FOIA FOLLOWUP LETTER..ANDA1) We need to let them know we want documents from their file dating back to 2005when damage to this area first beganspecifically to the boulder forest area which asthey were faxed, the Navy EIS indicated P wheeleri was found.

2) We want copies of the letters and emails sent from people to the agency, not justresponse letters as they did in the case of Juan Romero multiple times in this partialrelease. This includes former refuge management Teresa Tallevast and should dateback to 2005 when problems with t his developer first arose.

3) The information in the cover letter from Edwin Muiz and sent to ANDA must be setclarified since the information referenced by Muiz is inaccurate.

The follow up letter to FOIA was sent was in October, the original FOIA was sent inSeptember and that the Cooperative Agreement requested required no furtherclarification.it was clearly requested by number in original FOIA request.

Finally, this follow up letter should stress we need these documents immediately givenstatute of limitation concerns and damage being caused to the area by Gonzalez, and inthe name of the Cooperative Agreement with the USFWS, as it appears on project signsfound on the public beach.

CORALationsCORALations will write another letter for this record as well.Website

CBDBegins review of documents sent..discuss collaborative press release?

Documents

USFWS_Gonzalez_CooperativeAgreement