Reserva Natural Punta Cucharas (Punta Cucharas Nature Reserve) is a nature reserve in Barrio Canas, Ponce, Puerto Rico.^[5] It consists of both a land area component as well as an offshore marine area.^[6] The land component has an area of 698 cuerdas (678 acres)^[7] while the marine component has an expanse of 3,516 cuerdas (3,415 acres),^[8] for a total area of 4,214 cuerdas (4,093 acres). The Reserve consists of mangrove ecosystems, coastal sand dunes, a saline lagoon known as Laguna Las Salinas, open water, and a century-old local community.^[9] The lagoon occupies and area of 347,898 m² (86 acres)^[10] Ecological protection is managed and enforced by the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources.^[11] Eight activities are allowed at the Reserve: scuba diving, boating, fishing, hiking, sun bathing, photography, bird watching and canoeing. Activities prohibited are: Camping, crabbing/trapping, horseback riding, water crafting, and hunting. Pets, ATVs, and fireplaces are also prohibited.^[12]

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Reserva Natural Punta Cucharas
Punta Cucharas Nature Reserve
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Sign at the entrance to Reserva Natural Punta Cucharas
Reserva Natural Punta Cucharas The map shows the location of the Natural Reserve
Location	Barrio Canas, Ponce, Puerto Rico
Nearest city	Ponce
Coordinates	PR 17°58′00″N 66°40′23″W
Area	Total (Land): 698 cuerdas (678 acres)[1][lower-alpha 1] Total (Marine): 3,516 cuerdas (3,415 acres)[2] Las Salinas Lagoon only: 347,898 m2 (86 acres)[3]
Designation	2008[4]
Governing body	Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

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In 2001, the Puerto Rico Ornithology Society started promoting the conservation of the Las Cucharas area and proposed it as an Important Area for the Conservation of Birds. Then, during 2003–2004, the United States Geological Survey, with the support of the Ponce Municipal Government, conducted a hydrology study of Laguna Las Salinas.^[13] In June 2004, the Integrated Planning Area of the Natural Patrimony Division of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources of Puerto Rico (DRNA) issued a report on the natural value of the Punta Cucharas area.^[14] In 2008, Amigos de La Laguna (Friends of the Lagoon), a local concerned citizens group, issued a press release showing the impact that construction of the Gasoducto del Norte was to have on the lagoon. In August 2008, the Legislature of Puerto Rico passed Law 227 designating the Punta Cucharas natural area as a nature reserve and creating the Punta Cucharas Nature Reserve using, among others, the June 2004 DRNA report.^[15] On 9 August 2008, Punta Cucharas became a protected area under the law.^[16][17]

The area is located in the coastal and the subcoastal zones of the southern end of Barrio Canas. The area is bounded in the west by a tourist development, including a hotel, in the north by modern residential compounds, and in the south by the Caribbean Sea.^[18] It includes all the land southeast of Road PR-2 in Barrio Canas and the marine component of Isla de Ratones and Isla Cardona. The Caribbean Sea Marine Extent component includes the waters south of points from Punta Cucharas in the west and Rio Matilde in the east, both in the Ponce mainland, and north of points from Isla de Ratones in the west and Isla Cardona in the east, both islands south of Ponce.^[19][20] Isla de Ratones and Isla Cardona are both included in the Punta Cucharas Nature Reserve.^[21][22]

It consists of a salt water lagoon known as Laguna Salinas (Salinas Lagoon) that measures 347,898 square meters, as well as forestland systems of mangroves and other coastal forests, and different types of estuary and marshy wetlands. It also includes extensive areas of sand dunes covered by herbaceous vegetation, part of which are gramineous plants.^[23] The Reserve's total area is 698 cuerdas.^[24][25] The Salinas Lagoon has a mangrove that expands about 37 acres.^[26]

The Municipality of Ponce recognized the ecological value of the Punta Cucharas natural area and included a Special Plan PL. E. 2, on La Matilde Area (the Area that includes the Punta Cuchara area) in its Territorial Plan (Integral Review effective on 23 December 2003), in its Ordination Regulations component. This Special Plan intended to facilitate a residential, tourist and commercial development, contingent on the protection of natural resources such as Laguna Salinas and the wetlands to the south of the area and the conversion of PR-2 to an expressway and the construction of parallel service roads. Among the objectives of the Municipality of Ponce development were the establishment of a protection zone for wetlands and the Laguna Salinas.^[27]

The Action Program of the Territorial Ordinance Plan (1993) Judicial Ruling known as Ruling JAC 93–0485 in "Municipality of Ponce vs. Government of Puerto Rico", a.k.a., Ponce en Marcha was a $615,000 yet-to-be-built project in the Hacienda La Matilde area programmed to be finished during the 1996-97 of the Government of Puerto Rico fiscal year. However, "recognizing the great ecological value of the Punta Cucharas ecosystem, the Territorial Ordinance Plan of the Municipality of Ponce sought to protect the Punta Cucharas area, identifying it as a "high interest" ecotourism area.^[28]

The shoreline habitat consists of exposed mangroves, mixed sand and gravel beaches, and fine grained sandy beaches. The Reserve wildlife consists of wading birds and shore birds.^[29]

The Reserve has 148 flora species, 56 bird species (including both resident or migratory species), five mammal species, nine reptile species, five amphibians, and six fish species.^[30]

In October 2012, the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources published a 54-page environmental impact evaluation with numerous appendixes. In it, the DRNA proposed relocating the existing main vehicular entrance and building the necessary entryway and signing, making improvements to the existing road, building gazebos for group picnics and relaxation plus a gazebo for nature talks, construction a floating dock for kayaks, creation of an additional dock for ondock-fishing, erecting an observation tower and building a restaurant, a boat ramp, and bathroom facilities (compost toilets). The development area would cover 283 cuerdas (275 acres).^[45] As a low environmental impact construction project, the plans include no new water, sewer, or electrical lines being brought into the area. The cost was estimated at $1.2 million.^[46]

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