RECORDER AND TIMES (Brockville, Ontario) 21 June 05 Park launches sign campaign to help area turtle population (Tracey Tong)
Mallorytown Landing: A recent study by the St. Lawrence Islands National Park has shown that the area's turtle population is in danger, a local expert says.
The park's most recent study on turtle fatalities found that with traffic volumes between Kingston and Brockville in the Thousand Islands ecosystem, collisions with vehicles is the leading cause of turtle death. The report states that in this area, the annual road mortality rate for turtles approaches five per cent for a small pond turtle, 25 per cent for large pond turtles and 50 per cent for land turtles. At the same time, other Canadian studies suggest that an annual loss of two per cent will cause a decline in the species.
"The population is not recovering," said Chris Bellemore, a species-at-risk communicator at St. Lawrence Islands National Park. "It's kind of alarming."
In an effort to help reduce turtle fatalities, the park is launching a signage campaign to bring awareness of the local turtle population, said Bellemore.
The national park will be erecting eight turtle crossing signs in the greater park area to draw attention to the problems that traffic can pose to turtles.
The signs - which were supplied by Turtle SHELL (Safety Habitat Education Long Life) Tortue, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to turtles - will be placed in areas where park staff notice turtle fatalities, said Bellemore.
While four of these signs are already up along the Thousand Islands Parkway between Mallorytown and Rockport, Bellemore said he anticipated putting up the other four in an area heavily populated by turtles along County Road 5 between Mallorytown and Athens.
June is the time of year when turtles are especially sensitive to car traffic, Bellemore said.
Turtles spend most of their time in water, but during nesting season - usually from mid-June to the end of June - female turtles move to land where they search for suitable nesting sites to lay their eggs.
Areas for nests can be sand or gravel-rich sites beside bodies of water, rotted logs, stumps, or vacated muskrat houses. Some of these are found along roads where there is lots of sand or gravel.
"The roads are certainly fragmenting their habitat," said Bellemore. "And this tends to minimize their populations due to the fact that there are barriers that they can't cross. They get separated and segregated."
As a result, turtles often cross roadways where there is a high level of traffic.
There are five turtle species in the area, including the Midland-painted turtle, snapping turtle, Blanding's turtle, map turtle, and stinkpot turtle. Of the five, three have been determined species at risk by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). The Blanding's turtle and the stinkpot turtle are considered threatened and are likely to become endangered if factors are not reversed, and the map turtle is considered of special concern.
While most turtle fatalities on the road are accidents, Bellemore said that some people have been known to run over turtles on purpose.
"We do see cases of that, where tracks are going off the road to target a turtle," Bellemore said. "Turtles cannot sustain an impact from anything running over it. They're very sensitive that way."
But this doesn't mean that people should pull over to move turtles on a busy highway, he added.
"The best thing to do is be careful, slow down and avoid them, that kind of thing," Bellemore said.
As long as they don't get run over first, turtles can live up to 60 or 70 years, Bellemore said. Turtles reach maturity at about seven years.
"It's usually the mature turtles that get hit his time of year," said Bellemore. "And it's usually the females, because they're the ones that are travelling to lay their eggs."
Fall and early spring pose a different threat to turtles - this time, to the younger ones that are trying to make their way to water.
"Smaller turtles get hit later on in the season, and they're a lot harder to spot," Bellemore said.
St. Lawrence Islands National Park is committed to achieving ecological integrity, Bellemore said. Studies are ongoing to better understand these turtles' habits and the impact of humans on turtle populations.
Park launches sign campaign to help area turtle population