CURRENT OF SOMERS POINT, LINWOOD, NORTHFIELD (Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey) 20 January 11 Summer resident works to save turtles along North Wildwood Boulevard (Lauren Suit)
North Wildwood: Traffic along the North Wildwood Boulevard might be sparse now, but Patrice Dorfman is preparing for the early summer when thousands of diamondback terrapins make their way out of coastal marshes and onto busy highways.
With the help of her group, North Wildwood Terrapin Rescue, and the Wetlands Institute, Dorfman is trying to raise money to build barriers to help stop the deaths of nesting turtles.
Dorfman, who lives in Newtown Square, Pa. and has a summer home here, couldn’t help but notice the turtles scurrying across North Wildwood Boulevard or squashed alongside the road last summer.
“It seemed like a number of municipalities have fencing along their roadways to protect the terrapins, but the Wildwoods have nothing,” she said.
Barriers have been used for several years along Stone Harbor Boulevard, Avalon Boulevard and, recently, a community-driven terrapin barrier in Margate.
She called the Wetland Institute for help but was told that institute did not have the money or resources to expand the fencing program to other areas, such as North Wildwood Boulevard.
“We both needed help,” Dorfman said.
The institute every year patrols a 40-mile stretch of road from Middle Township to Sea Isle City and Upper Township, documenting road kills, incubating eggs from road kills and saving female terrapins that were hit by cars.
“They asked me if I would work on getting fencing for the area, so I volunteered,” she said.
Dorfman said she enlisted the help of her nephew, Nick Plagge, and the duo spent their mornings North Wildwood Boulevard looking for turtles during the two-month nesting season in the summer.
She said they recorded 82 road kills and rescued about 15 terrapins from the roadway.
When there was a road kill, they logged it on a sheet, using coordinates from the GPS system in their vehicle.
“There are definitely some hot spots,” she said of the turtle deaths.
The results were sent to Sen. Jeff Van Drew, whom Dorfman said has been helping the group in their effort to get the OK from the state Department of Transportation for permission to install fencing along the boulevard.
Dorfman said the group has 15 volunteers that are now working on state approval and fundraising for the process.
Dorfman said that because most of the boulevard has guardrails, they can use chicken wire along most of the roadway. Tubing could be used along the portion of the road that doesn’t have guardrails.
She expects the cost for the project to run between $15,000 to $20,000.
“It’s three miles of roadway,” she said. “It’s not an impossible distance.”
To raise the money and awareness, Dorfman said the group is planning to march in the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade with a fundraiser after at Casey’s on Third. Another beef and beer in April and donations can be accepted through the group’s site, www.terrapinrescue.org.
In the midst of fundraising efforts, Dorfman said she and her group of volunteers are still keeping pressure on the state.
“We check in frequently. Otherwise I feel like they’d forget about us,” she said.
“There are a lot of hoops to jump through despite the fact that we did the research ourselves and are paying for the project through our own fundraising efforts,” Dorfman added.
She said that the state had wanted to have their employees install the fencing, but Dorfman disagrees with that decision.
“I think that just adds more time and another level of state involvement,” she said.
Despite all the red tape, Dorfman said she is optimistic the project can go forward in time for the nesting season, which begins in May.
The result, she said, is well worth all the effort.
“Where barriers have been built, the Wetland Institute has seen a dramatic decline in terrapin deaths, almost 85 to 90 percent,” she said.
Summer resident works to save turtles along North Wildwood Boulevard