2016 Southern Regional National Cooperative Soil Survey Conference

A Healthy Soil The Key For A Healthy Environment

The registration desk at Rincón of the Seas Hotel will be open on Sunday, June 19, 2016 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm and at 8:00 am to 10:00 am on Monday, June 20, 2016. The Conference will begin at 10:00 am. An overview and introductions to the main themes of the conference, discussions of regional issues and priorities will be addressed during the afternoon. The participants will enjoy the soil diversity of Puerto Rico, a small tropical island, with ten of the twelve soil orders established by Soil Taxonomy.  Climate diversity also provides for the occurence of Perudic to Aridic soil moisture regimes and an exquisite diversity in vegetation and ecological sites.  The meeting facilities Rincon of the Seas Hotel are located at the Municipality of Rincón.  This location is an approximate 2 1/2 hour drive from San Juan and about 30 minute drive from the Univerisity of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus where the College of Agricultural Sciences is located. Rincón is a small coastal town known as the city of beautiful sunsets.

The Field Trip will be held on Wednesday, June 22, 2016.  The busses will depart Rincón of the Seas Hotel at 7:30 am for the Maricao State Forest to visit to the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery Project and provisional Ecological Sites.   The next stop will be at the Guanica Dry Forest and the NEON Project. Lunch will be held at the University of Puerto Rico, Agricultural Experiment Station in Lajas.  Here we will visit soil pits displaying a Vertisol and an Ultisol - representative series of the Lajas Valley, the first Agricultural Land Reserve established in Puerto Rico. The field trip will end with a visit to the Cabo Rojo Salt Flats, the Costal Restoration Initiative and the Historic Cabo Rojo Light House.

Reservations for Rincon of the Seas rooms in block must be made before midnight, May 30th, or as the rooms last.  Each individual must secure reservations by contacting the hotel at 787-823-7500.  The hotel have a policy to charge one night to guarantee the reservation.  After midnight, May 30th, reservations requested by attendees will be accepted based on room availability and the best available rate at the time. The hotel has a 72-hour cancellation policy (June 16, 2016).