Fallon students help save sea
turtles in Costa Rica
By Vanessa Burch, Fallon Star
Press Correspondent
Late last month a dozen
students, teachers and parents
returned to Fallon after working
on a sea turtle refuge in Costa
Rica.
The group, led by Churchill
County Junior High School
science teacher Kendyl
Warren-Robinson, spent four
nights of their ten-day trip
guarding the endangered
Leatherback sea turtles' eggs as
they were laid on the beach at
the EcoTeach refuge.
According to Warren-Robinson's
daughter and recent Churchill
County High School graduate
Corrie Robinson, 18, "this all
started out as a field trip for
science teachers. The teachers
thought it would be cool to
bring their students along and
they changed it."
Warren-Robinson, who has taught
science at CCJHS for five years,
invited the students aged 13-18
on this trip "to educate them
about the environment," said
Robinson. "The whole trip is
geared towards the environment."
Down to the partial funding of
the trip through profits of soy
candle and organic, free-trade
Costa Rican coffee sales
organized by Warren-Robinson,
almost every aspect of the Costa
Rican adventure encompasses
environmental education.
According to Robinson, the
profit from her mother's candle
and coffee sales from the past
three years defray the costs of
the trip, and each attendee
covered the rest.
The group first flew into San
Jose, Costa Rica and then "took
a tour bus, and a boat to where
we were staying because it's in
a remote village," said
Robinson. From there the 12
boarded another boat that led
them down a canal to where they
stayed at the refuge.
"It was like a shack--all you
needed was a roof over your head
and a bed. We had electricity
and showers for two hours during
the day," said Robinson, whose
group awoke to the ocean each
day at the sea turtle refuge.
According to Robinson, the
shelter was provided by EcoTeach,
the "group that's for junior
high kids and older that
organized the whole thing."
The four nights the group spent
at the refuge were spent "taking
the turtles' eggs and putting
them in a secure area so they
could hatch without outside
influences and patrolling to
watch out for poachers," said
Robinson.
According Bryce Johnson, 18, who
also attended the trip with his
mother Carol Johnson, a computer
teacher at Northside, "people
steal the turtle eggs to eat
them as aphrodisiacs."
This is one of the reasons the
endangered Leatherback sea
turtle eggs, which are laid near
the EcoTeach refuge on the
Caribbean side of Costa Rica are
threatened.
According to Robinson, another
problem these and other sea
turtles face is "pollution.
Pollution in the ocean affects
them," said Robinson, who saw an
"albino turtle with no lips.
Some of the turtles come out
with deformed fins or their
turtle shells are not sturdy
enough to hold them."
Seeing all of these occurrences
first-hand made Bryce, who
begins his senior year at CCHS
this fall, "more interested in
science and doing something with
range management or the biology
of animals," he said.
In addition to gaining
scientific and environmental
knowledge from this adventure,
these students and their parents
"went to a volcano and walked to
a waterfall," said Robinson,
whose group also went "rafting
down a river, exploring, on a
zip line through the rainforest
and stayed at a resort on the
Pacific Coast."
They also also "worked on an
organic farm and learned about
deforestation. We also did a
home stay with Costa Rican
families," she added.
For some students, like
eighth-grader Lexi Berney, the
home stay was among the
highlights of the trip. "Seeing
the way other people love in a
different country and all the
different sides of Costa Rica,"
including the "wildlife" was
what made the experience
special, said Lexi, 13.
She admitted that prior to
traveling to Costa Rica,
"science was not my favorite
subject--but I like it a lot
more now."
Like Lexi, Robinson also
appreciated the home stay
experience, yet one of the most
important lessons this
soon-to-be UNR freshman took
from the trip was on a different
scale.
"My mom always told me that the
environment was dying and we had
to save it, but I didn't put
this to use," said Robinson.
"When I came back, all that
changed--my perspective on our
world changed."
"The trip was an awesome
experience and everyone deserves
to go," said Robinson who plans
on "going back next summer."
The other people who attended
the trip were Linda Hammond,
CCHS computer teacher and her
daughter Kaylee Hammond, Conor
Goetsch, Chali Heckathorn,
Michael Potts--a CCJHS teacher
who recently moved to
Minneapolis, and Logan and Kelly
Service.
If interested in attending, or
simply supporting the trip in
future years, contact Kendyl
Warren-Robinson at 867-5182 or
purchase whole or ground Costa
Rican coffee at the Flower Tree
Nursery located at 2975 Reno
Highway in Fallon. |
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