These eight specimens of Emys orbicularis are the first of many returning to a landscape that had nearly forgotten them. Before the heavy machinery arrived to clear the invasive vegetation and silt from the As Gándaras de Budiño, the resident turtles were moved to safety. They spent the intervening months under the care of the Centro de Recuperación de Fauna Silvestre de Carballedo, waiting for their home in the Louro River basin to be made habitable once more.
The restoration of the wetland is a meticulous labor of reversing neglect. Workers removed aggressive, non-native plants that had choked the water surface, and they cleared the way for the common teal and other waterbirds to return. The site is a place of deep memory; in the mid-twentieth century, archaeologists led by Emiliano Aguirre found Paleolithic stone tools in these same river terraces, proving that humans and these long-lived turtles have shared this mud for millennia.
The survival of the sapoconcho—a Galician name meaning "toad with a shell"—now depends on the permanence of these waters. Unlike the invasive sliders often dumped by pet owners, the native pond turtle is a shy creature that requires specific basking zones and clean, still water to thrive. Its presence is a quiet indicator of ecological health, a signal that the water is again capable of supporting the complex web of aquatic insects and larvae the species requires.
As Alejandro Lorenzo, the Mayor of O Porriño, watched the last of the eight turtles disappear into the depths, the significance of the moment was found in its stillness. The wetland currently covers 6,000 m², but work continues to double its size. For a creature that can live for six decades, this restoration is not a temporary fix, but the rebuilding of a world that was nearly lost to the encroaching silt of the modern age.