San Pancho and Turtle News from Costa Verde Ecological Group Frank D. Smith - Ecological Group of Costa Verde
July 2, 2019

Hola Volunteers and Supporters ~

Dave Fisher passed away the morning of June 11th.  Dave was a great friend and a gifted musician; the only person to have played in all 19 of the annual Music Festivals in San Pancho. He was very excited to play in the 20th, and it’s a shame that that will never be.

He leaves behind a grieving wife, 3 children, 4 grandchildren, many friends, and countless songs. His presence and his light will be dearly missed. There will, sometime in the future, be a celebration of his life. However, I do not have the details at this time.

Turtle wise: This June is the same as last season about twenty nests, all of which were disguised or moved to better locations. Our commitment to cover beach four times a night is designed to discourage poaching, and it must be working: to date there been no poachers, no poacher tracks on the beach at night, or nests poached.

Volunteer-wise: Year round, Manuel Murrieta, Julio Gonzales and America Tejas, Juan Flores and family, Karen Sorum and Hallie Loveridge. It seems like this happens every other year; this time six volunteer canceled within a week, July 1st to end of September. We need to fill all four time periods as August/September is the most active time of the season.

First two weeks of June Left side Indiana and Jeffery Steinkamp. Top right, father is Guillermo, wife Laia, son Joaquin, Sofia and Camila Kussy.
Last two weeks of June Top right to left Mitchell Marr, Madison McLoughlin,Karen Sorum, Roman Schlichting, Steven Nelson, Hallie Loveridge, Ryven Schlichting. Bottom left to right Kristylee, Angie Dean, Linnea and Isabelle Nelson.

Weather-wise: Daytime temperatures were in the high 80°s to the low 100°s, while night time temps were in the mid to high 70°s. On June 24th the first tropical tropic depression, Alvin began its journey to the northwestward, but didn’t effect San Pancho. Rain this year/month totaled .92 inches. Under the main bridge the river is still totally dry, and the lagoon surface is the largest that it has every been in many decades.

The group’s ageing laser printer “HL-3040CN” unexpectedly stopped printing after many years of good service.  By this time it had many other problems: it badly needs an expensive belt drive, plus a complete set of four toner cartridges, image drums, and bottles of toner.  Total cost of replacing all these items came to $622 dollars. So, push had come to shove, and we purchased a new Brother “HL-L8260cdw” for $442 dollars, (including tax and shipping).  Like the older printer, the cartridges are easily refillable, although this new model is advanced in its design.

We are looking for donation of gasoline or funds to purchase it. Unfortunately gasoline is by far our largest expense.  The dune buggy is very necessary to keep poachers off the beach where nothing else works. While speaking of the buggy, we’ve been driving it with little to no brakes for years, in mid June the problem was fixed, it now has good brakes.

Town and Country: The new toll road under construction will hopeful reduce traffic jams on highway 200, for that we are very thankful. I do have several environmental concerns with its construction. In the event of a large hurricane and/or heavy rains massive mud/rock slides, flash floods could totally overwhelm the riverbed on it’s way through several small communities on its way to Sayulita and the ocean.

During the summer, muddy water would quickly be carried to the shores of San Pancho’s via the currents. It is also possible that the condition of muddy waters during the rainy season could stay with us for many years to come. The peso at the end of the month is about 19.6, regular gasoline 20.2 pesos per lt. or about $4.20 per gallon.

Frank Smith, Director
Grupo Ecológico de la Costa Verde, A.C.
Project Tortuga
Tel. 311-258-4100

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