Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge
unit of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Lajas, Puerto Rico
The Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge (Spanish: Refugio de Vida Silvestre de Laguna Cartagena) is a 1043-acre National Wildlife Refuge in Lajas, Puerto Rico. It is part of the Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
The present lagoon is a remnant of what was once an open expanse of water. Historically, the lagoon was one of the most important freshwater habitats for migrating waterfowl and aquatic birds in Puerto Rico. Due to agricultural practices, about 90 percent of the lagoon is occluded by cattail. Intensive cattle grazing and sugar cane production have greatly altered the original landscape.
In addition to the lagoon, there are uplands containing pastureland and abandoned sugar cane fields. 263 acres (1.06 km2) of foothills can also be found, belonging to the Sierra Bermeja. Said foothills are, geologically, the oldest in the Caribbean and protect native forest with multiple endemic plant species. The area is a stopover for neotropical migrants and several species of waterbirds.
“Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge” enters the record as unit of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Lajas, Puerto Rico. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Laguna, Cartagena and National can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6472800. VIAF identifies the subject as 315529414. Authority coordinates are 18.014, -67.101. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1043.
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This entry incorporates text from “Laguna Cartagena National Wildlife Refuge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.