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04 May 2001 Laguna FlamingosOld Mexico, New Mexico
The grim reality for anyone with even a touch of Texan pride is this: Mexico does it better. Over this past week we saw our vaunted Lower Rio Grande Valley, with bird, butterfly, and odonate lists that are the envy of every other nature tourism venue in the U.S., take a humble second-best. Mexico put us in our place, and it revealed the tip of a blade that is long enough and sharp enough to shred other pretenders into slender little ribbons. From whence this comeuppance? From an unknown, virtually unbirded, unrecognized corner of Mexico, less than a three-hour drive from Brownsville. For those who don’t depend on pride to feel good about Texas, for those who recognize that pride comes before a fall, that it’s one of the seven deadly sins, and that it forms the essential component of all those Greek heroes who were devoured by monsters, slain by their enemies, deserted by kith and kin and sent straight to Hades, well, for those who aren’t so terribly proud, the situation in Mexico is no comeuppance at all: it’s a come-hither. Fermata revisited Laguna Flamingos, on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, for the second in a series of resource inventories for Dr. Eric Gustafson, the Mexican president of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, NE, who has brainstormed one of the most innovative conservation projects in the country. Laguna Flamingos is a cattle ranch that once had a vast series of lagoons and natural wetlands fed by the Soto la Marina River. When upriver dams cut the flow to a trickle, these wetlands dried up, and the wildlife that depended on them was driven off. Gustafson, working with the owner of the ranch, spent two years obtaining permits from the federal and local governments that would allow him to divert saline river water back into the lagoons. Once obtaining approval, a six-mile, 9’x 3’ canal was built, three electric pumps were installed, and the 1200-acre main lagoon was refilled, along with a series of smaller ones along the canal’s route. To call the rejuvenated wetlands a cornucopia of bird activity is a hackneyed but exceedingly apt description. On our visit we were treated to Gull-billed Tern flocks that numbered in the hundreds, egrets and herons spread out across the marsh, and coastal marsh inhabitants such as Botteri’s Sparrow calling from the grass. The payback has been far more than restoring habitat for wildlife, however. The lagoons are now teeming with shrimp and crab, blue crabs that are larger than any of us had ever seen. As Texas and Mexican communities along the Gulf have overfished their crab populations to the point where commercial crabbing is essentially dead, these managed populations will provide a significant source of income to the ranch. In addition to the wetland habitat, Laguna Flamingos borders a 7,000-acre tract of semi-deciduous tropical forest. Within the confines of the forest are Thicket Tinamou, Lineated Woodpecker, Blue Bunting, and Ivory-billed Woodcreeper, to name only a few of the avifauna that make this an absolute knockout site for birders. An unbelievably long and varied species list that includes dramatic butterflies such as Two-barred Flasher add to the already tremendous value of the site. Proximity to another vast and pristine lagoon, Laguna Morales, as well as proximity to the coastal regimes in the nearby town of La Pesca, create a wildlife-watching venue that exceeds virtually any single location found north of the border. Critical issues, however, remain, and the way that Laguna Flamingos resolves them will have crucial implications for conservation and nature tourism in Mexico. The primary issue, as it is for all tourism venues in Northeast Mexico, is how to attract visitors from the U.S. Skewed perceptions of crime, filth, official corruption, bad roads, unsafe food, and poor accommodations mean that most tourists who find their way into South Texas never make it across the border. To add to the problem, visitors often enter Mexico through the portal cities that are an actual testimony to many of the social and political problems that Mexico–like the United States–faces. Yet once those gateways have been passed, the northeastern part of the country offers up beauty, grandeur, richness of wildlife and of human culture that few destinations to the north can ever hope to match. The roads to Laguna Flamingos are in excellent condition, the drivers courteous, and accommodations in the nearby town of La Pesca are clean and affordable. More importantly, Mexicans understand service and treat visitors with a respect, promptness, and attitude that perfectly define the concept of "customer-oriented." If Mexico doesn’t have all of the slick, polished appeal of a Club Med resort, then, in our opinion, more power to it. What this corner of Mexico possesses, above all else, is a powerful coterie of reasons to come and visit. For those who are familiar with the Fermata company line, it will come as no surprise to hear that we believe the best solution to Northeastern Mexico’s main issue–how to attract visitors–will be found in creative partnering. Venues in the Lower Rio Grande Valley stand to gain by putting together travel packages that encourage visitors to discover Mexico; it gives tourists a concrete reason to choose one Valley destination over another similar destination that lacks this type of packaging. Moreover, it is the crucial step that will begin the momentum that advocates of both the Valley and Northeastern Mexico have long dreamed of: a nature-tourism alliance between these two powerhouses. The phenomenal success of Fermata’s pioneering project, the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail, could easily be brought into Mexico and become the juggernaut of conservation and economic development that it has started to become in Texas, in Florida, and now in Virginia as well. Trip du Jour, May 4, 2001
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