In communicating with the St. Croix Environmental Association and reading the articles by Ken Jones in the St. Croix Source's Home and Garden section, there is a misunderstanding as to the definition of native trees on St. Croix.
My father helped set up a tree farm for the federal government in 1954 at Estate Thomas. He subsequently bought additional acreage and started a tree farming operation of his own at neighboring Estate Bellevue in 1956. The objective was to produce mahogany for soil conservation.
Caribbean Mahogany (Swietenia Mahogani Jacquensis) is a very special tree species which is rare as fully mature trees in every part of its range. It is considered to be one of the finest lumber species and revered by woodworkers. This is why such woodworkers as Queen Elizabeth's nephew David Lord Linley have signed on as advisors to the Caribbean Mahogany Project at Estate Thomas and Bellevue. It is no longer regarded as available for commercial use, however, and certainly not as dimensional 2x4s.
The fact that it is so wide spread here, as small trees can lead to it's being taken for granted. The winged nature of mahogany seeds and ability to grow under adverse conditions make it ideal for soil conservation. Most reforestation is done by driving to the target area with seedlings and planting by digging a hole. This is not always feasible and there are planting systems which use devices to drop seeds or seedlings in areas that are not so easily reached. Being winged, mahogany seeds need no devices and can be dropped from a plane as was done on St. Croix in the 1950s.
Haiti is currently facing a crisis as a result the use of charcoal as a primary fuel. Conditions over much of the country are close to lunar. The percentage of the country which remains in its original varied state is down to about 2 to 4 percent and much of this is in parks in the most remote areas of a mostly roadless country.
There are plans to create buffer areas surrounding these parks which will be seeded with trees that will be under a lesser level of protection. Charcoal burners using donkeys have created the current conditions and threaten the national parks. The charcoal burners will be discouraged from the buffers but will likely cut there instead of in the parks.
http://www.psu.edu/faculty/hedges/pub56.html
Caribbean Mahogany was apparently introduced in the 1600s from Haiti by the French. The list that has been put together by Ken Jones creates an erroneous and artificial distinction between trees introduced by the Arawaks and Caribs on one hand and the Europeans on the other. This is an artificial distinction when dealing with species found no further than a few days canoe ride away.
Of those trees described as native, many are from either South America or Central America rather than being truly indigenous. There seems to be a connection with utilization of certain species by the Indians as food sources and introduction by those who settled St Croix before the colonial Europeans. If a species could be eaten it was used as a trade good and made its way by longboat across the Caribbean. Pineapples originally from Guatemala are an example.
Mahogany appears to have been introduced but to have been present as close as Puerto Rico. The particular problem is that it is being classed as an exotic species by Jones as though like Flamboyant it had come from Madagascar.
I hope that we don't continue to deify the Indians for being first. If the Indians on St Croix had gone north to south rather than south to north or had mahogany been edible and in trade, it would have been here before Columbus.