Last year the conservationists – specifically the Audubon Society - were in an uproar about Area Representative’s Edmund Castro’s road to Blackburn. He built it right across a wetland area – and did not conduct an EIA first. But he says it’s not about what he built it across, it’s what he built it to, and that’s the fertile area of Blackburn, a ten thousand acres spread where Crooked Tree farmers grow their crops. In that past they had no easy way to get there. And so, Castro’s defense was that he puts the livelihoods of his constituents before the clamoring from conservationists. And it’s in that same defiant, and proudly populist spirit that he opened the 1.7 mile causeway yesterday. He said that the Audubon only got in the way.
Hon. Edmund Castro, Area Rep.
“It is a wonderful feeling to know that we could now drive to Blackburn, the area that the villagers of Crooked Tree wanted to get to for donkey years and I know we have been through a lot of problems in the past with some people that did not want to see this happen but I was elected on the premise to help the people so they can help themselves and building this road was key to the
development of the people in this area. Not only them and their farms but later on the rest of the country will see that this road to Blackburn is also a wonderful piece of infrastructure that is very necessary and vital for the development of the entire country. Now people will access to not just Altun Ha in a short while but also the bird sanctuary and behind Blackburn there is Chaa Hich, you go straight up this road, you make a left and you get to Chaa Hich. If you go across a few miles you will be at Lamanai. So this is really the La Ruta Maya.
With this project now that we have Audubon out of the way and behind us, because they were the biggest one that gave us problems and was resistant to the people of Crooked Tree for the development of this road, now that we have them out of the way, we can proceed to continue to connect the road to Lamanai, to connect the road to, when you go left you are connected to Chaa Hich and you go straight into Lemonall. If you go right you’ll be able to go into Carmelita. So the people of Crooked Tree will be able to access Carmelita, Lemonal, Lamanai, they will be able to tap into Shipyard rather than going all the way around to go to Shipyard. Now you can drive to Blackburn and the people of this area can now farm adequately. Normally once a farmer gets across here, he used to take one week before he gets back home. As teacher George Tillett as mentioned, he and his son now can ride to Blackburn in five minutes, check on what they need to check on, and ride back home, same time after school which was impossible in the past.”
Villager #1,
“I ran from the farm land because I couldn’t take it anymore because in the past we needed a horse or we needed a dorey or roll your pants foot up and I decided I couldn’t take it anymore and so I went to look for employment with the government.”
Villager #2,
“When the water level is up, of course my father had to use to paddle all the way in a canoe to his farm. When the water goes down, if you don’t own a horse, you have to walk across the lake to about knee deep in the mud. It is the only farm land we have for the people of Crooked Tree. The island of Crooked Tree is a sandy island and so it is not good for farming. The land over this side is black soil. This village was first established or existed over 300 years ago and all these years we had to cross this lake on foot or sometime on horseback or stuff like that. But a lot of the farmers didn’t own a horse and so they had to walk across. This for me is a dream and it takes a long time to materialize.”
The second phase will include installation of culverts. But according to the Audubon Society the causeway has caused immediate environmental damage to the wetland and significant damage is foreseeable over the long term. They say that aerial photography shows that there is a browning of the wetland on one side of the causeway while the other is green – most likely because the causeway cuts through it.
