Skip to main content

Turtles Tonight! Turtles Tomorrow! Turtles Forever!


"Road safety is a big hurdle — in particular, a stretch of Cootes Drive where “plenty of animals, not just turtles, are squelched” every year." 


City’s turtles need your help, not your raccoons

BABY TURTLE

Photo courtesy Royal Botanical GardensA threatened Blanding's turtle born in summer of 2012 in a Burlington subdivision.

1 of 2
Threatened turtles around the harbour need your help — and maybe even your garden.
A Burlington homeowner helped nearly double the area’s population of threatened Blanding’s turtles last summer by allowing Royal Botanical Gardens biologists to protect and monitor a nest that popped up in a flower bed.
“We tracked the mother to the nesting area, protected it, and we were actually on hand when (the eggs) hatched,” said Tys Theysmeyer, head of natural lands for the RBG.
“It was a bit of a miracle … We knew of only 10 (Blanding’s) turtles total beforehand, and by the end of that day the population had increased by eight. We scooped them up and delivered them right into the marsh.”
Hamilton’s turtles need more than one-day miracles to survive an ongoing population decline, however.
RBG biologists have been using radio transmitters to track native turtle species as part of an effort to create a recovery plan.
Two of the species that traditionally lived in the Cootes Paradise and Grindstone Creek area have disappeared completely — the wood turtle and the eastern spiny soft-shell.
Estimates for painted, snapping and northern map turtles remain in the hundreds, but fewer than 20 Blanding’s and five musk turtles remain.
On Thursday night, RBG officials will outline potential plans at a public meeting to protect and, they hope, recover those populations. Theysmeyer said the conservation agency wants to hear from the public to help prioritize potential “recruitment” strategies for dwindling turtle populations.
Road safety is a big hurdle — in particular, a stretch of Cootes Drive where “plenty of animals, not just turtles, are squelched” every year. Theysmeyer said experimental fencing along Cootes seems to have deterred some, but not all turtles from trying to cross the road in 2012.
Potential solutions include more road barriers, wildlife underpasses or even reducing the 80 km/h speed limit.
“At 50 (km/h), at least you have time to realize you’re about to hit a turtle,” he said.
Another lesser-known turtle killer is the soft-hearted, raccoon-dumping city resident.
Theysmeyer said homeowners trying to get rid of problem raccoons often catch-and-release the critters in the forested RBG land around Laking Garden, a popular turtle nesting ground.
That’s a problem, Theysmeyer said, because raccoons love turtle eggs.
“I know it sounds odd, but it probably happens at least once a week,” he said of illicit raccoon releases.
Residents can help by simply not moving wildlife around, Theysmeyer said, but also by recognizing and protecting turtle nests if they end up on private property.
The RBG hopes to incorporate resident feedback into a recovery plan due to be completed by the end of February.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

a vision for nature in Cootes

View the Eco-Park Document here Make Cootes national park, group urges TheSpec.com - Local - Make Cootes national park, group urges Create eco-park in urbanized area Eric McGuinness , The Hamilton Spectator (Jan 28, 2009) The idea of a Cootes Paradise National Park is being revived by local conservationists. But they say it is jeopardized by plans for a self-storage warehouse beside the Desjardins Canal at the east entrance to Dundas. They point to a new vision of an urban eco-park -- maybe a national park -- incorporating the Cootes marsh, drafted by Urban Strategies Inc., the firm responsible for McMaster University's campus master plan among other Hamilton projects. Joe Berridge, a partner who has helped reshape waterfronts in Toronto, New York and London, produced the concept document at the invitation of Ben Vanderbrug, retired general manager of the Hamilton Conservati

McMaster's Parking Problem: Next Level

I'm sharing a recent article published in the Dundas Star News about McMaster's plan to build a - get this - $17-million dollar parking structure. Seventeen million. Yes, $17,000,000.00 That's a lot of money to provide temporary shelter for vehicles of people who choose to drive to campus. We will be following this closely. Here's the article.  Cootes Drive six-storey McMaster University parking garage under review Variances or amendment to zoning bylaw expected to permit parking structure Craig Campbell, Dundas Star News, Friday, March 5, 2021 Zoning bylaw variances, or amendments, could be required for a planned six-storey, 567-space McMaster University parking garage west of Cootes Drive, and north of Thorndale Crescent. University spokesperson Michelle Donavon said the $17-million structure on parking lot K at Westaway Road will help ongoing efforts to re-naturalize parts of the west campus, by moving some surface parking into the structure. “These plans will increa

Where did the water go? Art action in Lot M Parking

West Campus Eco-Art Project  A walking activity and site activation on McMaster’s West Campus.  West Campus Eco-Art Project is a project that incorporates creative walking activities and an artistic site activation connected with the West Campus Redesign Initiative at McMaster University. The initiative provides opportunities for connecting with nature through an on-line informational video, walking excursions and creative activities that deepen knowledge and experience with place in all its complexities (social history, citizen science, ecology and diversity).  Focusing on the Coldwater creek valley on McMaster’s West Campus, participants will learn about the history and unique features of the area and will be invited to then engage with the site through observation, sketching and stencil-making. Stencils will be used to paint text and image on the parking lot asphalt to delineate a blue line that marks an historic water route.  The project is supported by the McMaster Museum of Art (