| Adapted a solar dryer for the rapid seasoning of lumber under tropical conditions; since copied in other countries. |
| Characterized the physical and machining properties of more than 100 of the most useful woods of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. |
| Defined, mapped, and published descriptions of the Holdridge life zones throughout Puerto Rico and Brazil. |
| Determined, after years of experimentation, the best tree species for reforesting degraded lands in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and neighboring countries. |
| Determined untreated service life for fence posts of 40 tree species typical of the region and devised practical cold-soaking and hot-and-cold-bath preservative treatments to extend service life of fence posts up to tenfold. |
| Developed a library on tropical forestry, possibly the best of its kind in the hemisphere. |
| Developed an incisor that made possible the penetration of wood preservatives into the relatively impervious woods otherwise suitable for fence posts. |
| Edited a regional, bilingual, technical forestry journal, The Caribbean Forester, for 24 years and the bilingual worldwide newsletter of the International Society of Tropical Foresters for 10 years. |
| Inaugurated and sustained for 20 years the research that rescued the Puerto Rican parrot from almost certain extinction – a bird that is representative of other endangered parrots in the tropics. |
| Participated in all but one of the sessions of the FAO Latin American Forestry Commission and chaired the Regional Committee on Forestry Research since its inception. |
| Participated in detailed studies on the dynamics of subtropical wet and dry and lower montane forest ecosystems in Puerto Rico, which are representative of many other forests in the Caribbean. |
| Perfected seed, nursery, and planting practices for the most promising tree species for reforestation and for timber production in the Caribbean region. |
| Provided professional consultants on request to focus on tropical forestry problems in Mexico, Costa Rica, British Virgin Islands, St. Kitts, Antigua, Montserrat, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Malaysia. |
| Provided the technical basis for national land use planning of the Island of Puerto Rico (urban, cultivation, pasture, other permanent cover crops, timber forest, and protective forests), using criteria applicable regionally. |
| Published an analytical comparison of the growth performance of forest plantations in different life zones throughout the tropics. |
| Published illustrated descriptions of the entire tree flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands – some 750 species, most also of regional significance. |
| Recorded data on the growth rates of more than 100 tree species native to the six life zones represented in Puerto Rico and common throughout the Caribbean from wet to dry, relative to tree size, canopy position, and other conditions, as a basis for silvicultural stand improvement for increased yields. |
