Morne Basile

Overview

Morne Basile is an isolated, narrow ridge in northern Haiti, oriented northwest-to-southeast. It is 1477 meters in elevation at its highest point, and 4071 hectares of land are above 800 meters elevation (1650 hectares above 1000 m). As with Morne Boeuf, a brief visit by biologists in 2011, using a helicopter, found that tree-cutting had occurred throughout the mountain, and there was little remaining original forest. Nonetheless, a plant species known only from this mountain, and not seen for almost a century, was found in forest pockets near the ridge top, along with a relatively small number of native vertebrates including 4 species of reptiles and 8 species of birds. Some patches of forest exist on steep slopes around Morne Basile and may contain additional endemic species and even new species. The mountain lacks any protection measures.