Fostering feral cats and fertile gardens.

• Author: Murphy-Larronde, Suzanne
• Position: !Ojo!

THE DIMINUTIVE ENCLAVE of Old San Juan in Puerto Rico has long garnered attention for its Old World ambiance, lively cultural offerings, and incomparable seaside setting above the Atlantic. Now, this Spanish colonial gem is adding still more luster to its image, thanks to two ambitious improvement projects organized and orchestrated by scores of dedicated volunteers.

One group of community activists has taken on the restoration of the beautiful but neglected gardens of Casa Blanca, the one-time fortress and ancestral home of the descendants of Juan Ponce de Leon, Puerto Rico's first governor. In early 2003, the gardens' deteriorated condition caught the eye of U.S. park ranger Russ Brown and his Colombian-born wife, Carmen, who live just steps from the multi-acre property. "We got to thinking what a wonderful resource this would be if we could just get enough volunteers to bring the place back to its former glory," he explains.

Brown talked to his friend Jose Lopez, a resident of the neighboring suburb of Hato Rey and a frequent Old City visitor and, together with the support of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, they hatched a plan to upgrade the forgotten urban oasis beginning with its long-closed-to-the-public lower acreage. Soon, other locals were lending a hand and later, newspaper coverage of the project netted more eager recruits, including landscape architects, a retired biologist, and an antique dealer.

Collectively known today as Los Amigos de los Jardines de Casa Blanca, this nonprofit organization is well on its way to achieving the goals it set nearly two years ago. Alone and in squads of three and four, volunteers have cleared much of the dense tropical undergrowth from the property's wild lower reaches where mossy sixteenth-century walls border protected San Juan Bay. Other workers have lent their considerable talents to cleaning and repairing the network of abandoned fountains of restocking fish ponds. Still others focus on all-important tasks such as networking, recruiting, and fundraising.

To date, Los Amigos president Lopez estimates that his volunteer crews have performed cleaning and clearing chores valued at more than a quarter of a million dollars as well as repairs to Casa Blanca's ingeniously built waterworks. "We want to develop a trust fund and long-term management plan so that we can hire full-time maintenance and surveillance personnel," he notes. Once that happens, this verdant retreat at the heart of...