Audubon on the Comeback Trail

Back in May of 2017, the Audubon office in the village of Crooked Tree was burnt down in a case of arson. It is speculated that the crime was as a result of the tensions between the sanctuary manager and residents.  The historic wooden structure housed maps and equipments and served as a focal point for residents and visitors entering and leaving the village. It’s been over eight months now and Amanda Burgos-Acosta says it’s in the pipeline that the building will be replaced in the coming months.

Amanda Burgos-Acosta

Amanda Burgos-Acosta, Executive Director, Belize Audubon Society

“We have over this time period been doing the science aspect. So we’ve been doing our water level studies, we’ve been doing our bird monitoring, [and] we have been doing what we have within our science program. We have also been doing basic maintenance on the property that we have; we have trails that we maintain within the village. The water level has been high so we’ve been back and forth with that, but recently we did some major works in this area. When we are working on moving the building back, we wanted to make sure that we have the village council’s involvement. We wanted to make sure that we are forging this relationship forward before we are just seen as boldly moving back in. So we are working collaboratively with the entities here and in the next few months or few weeks, we should be having a structure. It will not be to the size or level of what we had before, but this area is used by tourists who are requiring information and it is used by school children.”