Zona Tranquila Beach Program letter to the community by Theresa Comber
Susan Godwin’s dog ‘Mac’ was hit by a car on the beach Saturday afternoon at 1 pm. Susan and friend Allison were walking their dogs just in front of Costa Brava when a fast-moving full size blue pickup truck driven by Americans came up behind them. The beaches were packed with people; the wind was blowing and many kiteboarders were on the water with all their cars and gear on the beach. The environment alone suggested a controlled speed. Yet Susan and Allison were concerned about the truck coming up behind them and motioned to the driver to slow. Susan, Allison and the dogs walked along as the truck pulled over to Dante’s big black tent. Not more than 70 feet further, with Mac and Allison’s dog Riley trailing them just a few feet behind, the truck came up behind, again moving too fast. The truck hit Mac, first running over him with its front tire, then over him again with the back tire, stopping on top of him.
Mac is a full-sized yellow lab that weighs about 65 pounds. Susan and Allison had to scream to get the driver to move off Mac’s body. It was a shocking, traumatic experience. With much thanks for his willingness, a beach goer sprang into action and helped load Mac in the bed of the offending truck and Allison directed the driver the short distance to Veterinarian Cristobal at Buenos Aires. Mac needed to be moved immediately to Gretel’s for treatment. The driver of the truck and his wife did not assist moving Mac, did not offer to provide support, did not provide their contact information for further follow up or to know of Mac’s condition. Shaun Speer raced with his truck to Cristobal’s and then ferried Susan back and forth to Las Cuevas.
The only blood came from Susan as in his agony Mac accidently bit her hand as she was trying to move him. Susan was attended at East Cape Health Center with puncture wounds on both sides of her hand which is now swollen beyond measure.
Now Mac is a special dog. Some may remember him. He originally belonged to Joe’s Deli and spent his life untethered cruising the street in front of the deli on busy Main Street. There he was hit at least twice. He also had a terrible accident having been drug behind a suburban that he was tied to. Thankfully, Susan fell in love with him and asked to have him. He’s been in Susan’s loving care since, including a few stamps in his Dog Passport to and from Colorado.
Touch and go for hours, the thankful part of the accident story is that Mac miraculously made it through. He seems to have the ‘Nine Lives’ of a cat. Our amazing and dedicated Dr Gretel, her veterinarian surgical specialist husband Dr Miguel and another doctor spent three hours from 6 pm to 9 pm attending to Mac. A torn bladder and a hernia were on their priority list. Mac’s hips are dislocated, and he’ll need another surgery in ten days when the top of his femur will be removed and scar tissue and tendons will replace the joint. He won’t have his normal gait, but otherwise he won’t really be impeded. We shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Drs Gretel and Miguel have a four-month-old baby girl. Their dedication to this dog is the fabric of care that our community is made of.
A Saturday afternoon walk with two girlfriends and their dogs turned into this. A $600 bill was the least of Susan’s worries when she picked up Mac; she said she would sell her house to regain Mac’s health. Again, the dog loving fabric of our community at its best.
Our community is frenetically growing and going at a speed that seems to recreate itself on the beach. Beachfront sports and usage are growing with a fervor. There will be no slowing now that ‘the word is out’ about the paradise found in the East Cape. The question is, without government oversight, how do we reset a sensibility that is being lost in order to protect dogs, kids, people, horses, turtles on our beaches. How do those of us that care deeply about our culture here, positively influence it. Now and for the future.
You likely know it is illegal to drive on the beaches. That’s the fact. Yet the same thing that keeps us with little governmental attention to our water, streets, electrical needs because we are so far afield from the seat of government in Baja (La Paz county, headquartered 1-1/2 hours north), has also successfully avoided stopping the beach driving abuse here in the East Cape.
Three and a half years ago I drafted a “Zona Tranquila Beach Proposal’ and presented it to the newly minted mayor to tackle the growing beach usage and conflict of interests that were compromising safety and pointing toward danger. It was full of cultural background and history about driving on the beach. It laid out the divergent beach users; those who were seeking solace and sun on the beach with a good book to those ripping across the sand in Side-by-Side Razors at 40 miles per hour. It took into account the beachfront homeowners plus businesses that rely on the beach; businesses like ours that stage from the beach for Baja’s Awesome Sportfishing. After 19 years doing it, I have a lot of experience. I am also a community engager and work to ‘positively affect positively whenever and wherever I can. I felt I may be uniquely placed to bring people and groups together, or at least to work toward it, and create a community-based advocacy solution.
I presented the “Zona Tranquila” plan with my Mexican staff and two local Mexican advocates. The mayor feigned interest, took the document and I’m sure promptly dropped it in to the round file, never to be seen again. I have enough political experience from our small resort community of Sun Valley, Idaho to know that without political will there’s little chance of success.
Flash forward, our new Mayor Francisco ‘Pancho’ who took office in November has a heart that is committed to our community. He wants to support community-based initiatives to work toward solutions for our societal and environmental challenges. He has actually worked for the delegation for 15 years, has worn many hats, and I’ve worked alongside him for 15 years and know him to be true. He is leaning into anything that we would propose.
Can a community-based, information driven initiative that cohesively blends beach users exist? Can we create an environment where dogs, kids, people are safe and still recreate?
Here in Mexico it’s alphabet soup with organizations that supply a web of beach oversight. Here they are, top down:
Semarnat: the Executive branch cabinet level department responsible for developing environmental policy and legislation. They are at the top of the pyramid and set policy that the two following organizations carry out. (Semarnat acronym: Secertaria del Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales)
Profepa: Federal Attorney General and Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources. Responsible for enforcing environmental laws, regulations and NOMs, ensuring compliance, and handling citizen complaints on noncompliance, with legal strength
Zofemat – Federal Beach Use and Concession Zone. In charge of the beach zone; they use Profepa as their enforcement arm plus available uniformed troops every so often to stop or impede beach access which lasts for a bit but never long. (Cultural history comes to play here.) It’s the Zofemat workers that empty the Blue Barrel Beach Clean Up program managed by East Cape Recycling & Environmental Education. Otherwise, there would be no program. Remember, we’re a long way away from La Paz.
Get this: These organizations, Semarnt, Profepa and Zofemat work together to provide strong and reliable institutions where the implementation of environmental law responds to the ideal of justice that people demand in a society; each member is meant to be the guardian of a friendly coexistence between man and nature. This endorses beyond measure the concept of community and society involvement.
This is the most positive key for a community initiative. One of Zofemat’s five tenet’s is to involve society and its organizations in the surveillance and environmental law in a responsible and informed way.
Now is the time. The stretch of the beach from the south Pemex arroyo to Palmas de Cortez to the north side of North beach is the place. When dogs are run over, a person, or a child, may be next? Most certainly they will if a sensible approach to beach management doesn’t occur. (Since this accident, we’ve learned that a dog was hit and killed last month in Buena Vista while walking with its owner; another dog was hit near Dante’s.)
The proposed community-based initiative is available to be reviewed, amended, adopted and put into place. It is an information awareness program relying heavily on signage, tourism communication, business buy-in and compliance. It will take opinion leaders willing to take on their personal areas of interest for beach recreation. It will take fundraising. It even spells out a way to fund a bilingual ‘Beach Information Officer’ that I foresee riding a big-tired bike to inform and raise awareness of the value of our beach as well as lovingly enforce compliance. And help ensure its environment is preserved and its beach users are safe.
People are coming here because they can feel a ‘sense of place’. Our beautiful little Los Barriles town was highlighted on the cover of two national magazines three years ago. The fabric of our community is friendly, kind and considerate. Our beaches reflect our values, our heartbeat and stand for our ethos. All of this, including the very special, woven fabric of our community is now under great pressure. Please, if you can, step up in whatever way you may. We need your expertise with community organizing, (especially if you’re bilingual), or your simple enthusiasm will go a long way.
I will host a first community meeting at 10 am this Thursday, tomorrow, at our pool terrace at Baja’s Resort at East Cape. We’re across from the Modelorama past the tall green walls. Please lean into this opportunity to become involved. Respond to zonatranquilalosbarriles@gmail.com. I’ll provide you copies of the Zona Tranquila program and we will begin the community planning process for a successful, cultural shift to protect while enjoying our beaches. We have the support and endorsement of our community’s turtle protection organization, Grupo Tortugero Cabo Este; Cortez Rescue and their dog loving, dog walking supporters; East Cape Recycling & Environmental Education. We need individuals and businesses to come forward. See you Thursday! Cookies & fresh squeezed orange juice, too! Please wear your masks.
Reference Links:
https://panorama.solutions/en/thematic-communities
https://mexlaw.com/mexicos-federal-zone-concession-and-beach-use/
https://www.mexlaws.com/SEMARNAT/semarnat.htm – laws
http://everythingcozumel.com/big-yellow-map/ consideration
https://www.profepa.gob.mx/innovaportal/v/1402/1/mx.wap/our_history.html