ENHS Nature Trails March 2000 Article 6

Help Battle the Aliens in the Name of the Western Pond Turtle

Friends of Buford Park and Mt. Pisgah are sponsoring a work party to enhance habitat for the Western Pond Turtle, Clemmys marmorata, on Saturday, May 1. This species, which lives throughout Western Oregon and the Klamath Basin, is one of only two native turtle species in Oregon. Most of us are vaguely aware that the turtle is in danger because of loss of habitat; in fact, it is listed as "sensitive-critical" by the Oregon department of Fish and Wildlife, and as "threatened with extirpation" by the Oregon Natural Heritage Program. Human population growth and land use practices are the cause of the turtle's decline.

As we have always had one or more turtles at our pond during the summer, I have often wondered about their comings and goings. A short article in the August 1999 issue of the newsletter, Oregon Wetlands, gave me the following information about the Pond Turtle's life cycle. During the warm weather months, Western Pond Turtles live in small lakes and ponds or in marshes and quiet streams. Typically, they prefer their aquatic homes to have a rocky or muddy bottom from which cattails, water lilies and other aquatic plants grow. They feed on many of these plants as well as on insects and carrion. During the breeding season they make their nests in grassy, sunny places, and in the winter, the turtles hibernate in brushy or woody areas.

Unfortunately, while moving to and from these nesting or wintering areas, many are killed by automobiles. Over the past century and a half, 80% of the turtle's original habitat has been lost as Oregonians drained ponds and wetlands in order to build houses and roads or to "improve" land for agriculture. Scrubby wetland woods have also succumbed to development. Another series of problems which the turtles face will be addressed by the work party on May 1: Alien species threaten The Western Pond Turtle. Not only do nonnative and opportunistic species like the bullfrog, raccoon and large mouth bass prey on young turtles, but nonnative vegetation, specifically blackberries, reed canary grass, and other plant species, devours much of the poor turtles' diminished habitat as well.

So come out and do battle with the aliens by hacking away at these invasive plants. Call Trevor Taylor for work party information: 687-7902. Or E-mail Trevor at trevtay@darkwing.uoregon.edu.

Reida Kimmel

Editor's note: I know Trevor; he's an exemplary young man who's already dedicated an inordinate amount of personal time to providing habitat for the Western Pond Turtle. If ever there were a young man deserving of any energies you can spare, it's this young man and the Western Pond Turtle.

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