There’s lots of news from the two NCA-supported organizations keeping our beaches green and pristine.

TortuGuiones is initiating the follow activities in April:

• Reaching out to the community for help in educating visitors about the wildlife refuge, especially during Semana Santa.

Many visitors do not know that the Beaches of Nosara are a part of a wildlife refuge and that sea turtles nest here, nor do they know that regulations exist to protect the wildlife that draws us all here. TortuGuiones encourages local businesses, rental agencies, and beachgoers to help spread the word. Post and share our educational materials, and approach someone who is using a straw, picking up seashells, or driving on the beach and give them a friendly reminder of the impact of their actions. If we stand up as a community, we can really make a difference!

View PDF

• Developing an app to facilitate reports of sea turtle sightings from visitors and the local community.

More than 30 sightings of sea turtle tracks, nesting turtles, and hatchlings have been reported since the start of the year. This means that if you are visiting Nosara for just one week, you are likely to run into one during your daily walks no the beach! However, it’s likely that many sightings are going unreported. The collection of data is the most important part of the work TortuGuiones does, as it informs administrators of the importance of continuing to protect Playa Guiones and Playa Pelada. Please contact Vanessa Bezy if you have relevant expertise and skills you would like to volunteer to help us in this endeavor.

• Teaming up with students at Del Mar Academy to eliminate styrofoam and plastic straws.

These single-use products are filling our oceans with trash and threatening sea turtles and other marine life who ingest them. Keep your ears and eyes out for this wonderful campaign, and contact TortuGuiones to see how you can get involved. You can help by talking to your favorite businesses and supporting only those businesses willing to join our efforts.

BarriGuiones

March is when the dry season gets the hottest in Nosara, but it’s also when we get the blessing of beautiful flowering tree tops and seeds start falling in forms of parachuting cotton and winged helicopters. BarriGuiones has been staying busy growing up over 5,000 trees at our nursery, plus collecting an impressive number and variety of seeds around in Guiones, Garza, and elsewhere around the Nosara district. BarriGuiones wants our community to help in this task. This is why training volunteers in how to recognise our main species of interest and their seeds is ongoing. Watch for a post on BarriGuiones Facebook announcing the next workshop.

Also during March, three public schools (Garza, Esperanza and Serapio Lopez) visited our tree nursery for the first time for an educational workshop on coastal ecosystem restoration. Each student adopted a tree to take care of until they plant it at the beach in our next tree planting campaign (June-August). The high school and remaining elementary schools will visit the nursery in April.