Kiley BriggsViews:
For a Wood Turtle, surviving in a river valley means being able to move safely through it. In the summer, some Wood Turtles move several miles up and down river corridors (and occasionally even farther than that), and much of that travel is done on land. That can be a problem because the same river valleys Wood Turtles depend on are also some of the most heavily farmed and developed landscapes in rural parts of the Northeast. Rich soils make them good places to grow crops, while relatively flat valley floors make them ideal for roads and development.
For a turtle moving between the river, feeding areas, nesting sites, and seasonal habitats, that means navigating a landscape filled with roads, farm equipment, and other hazards. Farms and roads are important to people, but they can be dangerous places for a Wood Turtle. With limited conservation resources, one of the biggest challenges is figuring out where our efforts can make the greatest difference. That starts with knowing where Wood Turtles are, how they use the landscape, and where the biggest opportunities for conservation exist.
Because Wood Turtles move across such large areas, conserving them requires thinking beyond individual properties or isolated patches of habitat. We need to think about the entire landscape. That is why we focus much of our landowner outreach and habitat restoration work within specific focal areas. By concentrating our efforts in the right places and sticking with them over time, we have a much better chance of making a meaningful difference for Wood Turtles.
I like to think about it this way: If someone gave us $1 million dollars tomorrow to spend on Wood Turtle habitat restoration and we spread that money across a hundred spots throughout an entire state, we might not make a meaningful difference for a single population of Wood Turtles. But, if we spend the same money on projects in just a handful of river valleys, we can seriously move the needle on the long term prospects for Wood Turtles in those areas. Ideally, we’d spend that money on the highest priority places for the species, but what if we don’t know where those places are? That is where species monitoring comes in.
Through collaborative, multi-state efforts led by wildlife agencies going back nearly two decades, a massive survey effort led to the development of a Conservation Area Network, which identified the highest priority sites for Wood Turtle conservation. Survey effort was not equal across all states, however, and a couple states were not able to participate (Vermont and New York). While high-priority sites were identified in both states, data deficiencies meant that the selected sites may not represent the highest priority spots for Wood Turtles.
That is where we stepped in. Starting in 2016 in Vermont, and much more recently in the Hudson Valley of New York, we’ve been chipping away at these data deficiencies by conducting Wood Turtle population assessments in places that have never been monitored before.
Our goal isn’t simply to find the places with lots of Wood Turtles. We also want to find nearby places where Wood Turtles are struggling. Those places can be just as important because they may offer opportunities to improve habitat and reconnect populations.
For example, last spring when we were doing surveys in southeastern Vermont, almost immediately we found several properties near each other where we could easily find decent numbers of Wood Turtles. Just a mile or so upstream, however, are several large farm operations with mowed fields right up against the riverbanks.
That contrast caught our attention. Establishing riparian buffers—strips of shrubby vegetation along streams—is a top priority for Wood Turtle conservation. Knowing that those farms are located immediately upstream from a healthy turtle population gives us a clear place to focus our landowner outreach. Over time, we hope some of those farms can become partners in habitat restoration projects.
Monitoring can also tell us exactly what needs to be fixed. When we’re surveying a site, we’re not just counting turtles. We’re paying close attention to the habitat around them. We look for places where invasive vegetation is taking over good nesting habitat, areas where suitable nesting habitat is missing, and farm fields that are mowed right up to the river’s edge.
Each of those observations points toward a potential conservation action: controlling invasive plants, establishing a riparian buffer, or restoring or creating nesting habitat. And in the case of buffers, there are programs that can actually compensate farmers for setting aside land for conservation—a win for both farmers and turtles.
The age of the turtles we find can tell us something about the health of a population. If we find mostly a small number of very old turtles, for example, it could mean that something is preventing young turtles from surviving and becoming adults. Maybe predators are taking too many nests or hatchlings. Maybe there isn’t enough suitable nesting habitat. Maybe something else is limiting reproduction. Whatever the cause, those observations give us another question to investigate and can help us figure out what kind of restoration work might actually benefit the population.
Although we’ve been monitoring Wood Turtle populations in Vermont for a decade, we’re not done yet. There are still several major watersheds where no Wood Turtle monitoring has been done. And in the Hudson Valley, we are just getting started. There are still plenty of places where we don’t know enough about Wood Turtles to know where our conservation efforts could have the biggest impact. But every new survey helps fill in the gap and gives us an opportunity to work with landowners to make the landscape safer for Wood Turtles. By finding both the places where Wood Turtles are doing well and the places where they could use some help, we can focus our limited conservation resources where they can do the most good.
Learn more about Wood Turtles, one of our Priority Species.
