NORTH SALEM, N.Y. - The plight of North Salem’s reptilian residents is getting some well-deserved attention after numerous turtles were reportedly killed while trying to cross Route 116 and other roads around town.
Presenting the cold-blooded critters’ case to the Town Board at its Aug. 25 work session was recent high school graduate and animal lover Finn Northshield.
She and her little sister, Juniper, were accompanied to the meeting by their mom and dad, Bryn and Andrew.
The ecologically-minded teen and Peter Van Scoy, captain of the local fire police, have both been busy gathering anecdotal and photographic evidence of the carnage at high-mortality spots such as the pond located on Titicus Road across from the North Salem Firehouse.
Van Scoy’s family has roots in the town that date to the 1700s. His grandparents’ former home sat to the left of what is known to locals as Williams Pond, a favorite venue for ice-skating back in the day.
Apparently, it’s also always been a hotspot for turtles during nesting season. From May through July, they depart from their wetland abodes to find sandy soil or high ground in which to lay their eggs.
(Turtles may also cross roads at other times of the year to find food or new territory.)
Besides the common snapping turtle – the official state reptile of New York - painted turtles and both red-eared and yellow-eared sliders live there.
Van Scoy has vivid memories of expectant mama turtles trudging up the family’s long dirt driveway on their way to burrow into the hillside near St. James Episcopal Church next door.
The hatchlings are likewise in danger, having to travel over the same busy roads to get back to the place their parents came from.
Both Van Scoy and Northshield are urging the town to put up “Turtle Crossing” signs there and possibly at other casualty zones.
Northshield is off to the Rhode Island School of Design this fall, where she hopes to study scientific illustration.
The Northshield family menagerie presently includes a dog, a rabbit, and nine chickens.
“I’ve always been very passionate about animals,” said the teen who’s volunteered at a few sanctuaries. “I get very upset when I see roadkill in general but more so when it’s a specific, reccurring thing.”
Besides the warning signs, Northshield suggested that the town at least look into turtle tunnels or retrofitted drainage culverts that could act as safe underground passages that allow the shelled wanderers to ford busy roads or railroad tracks at their own speed.
Other protective devices/infrastructure include wildlife exclusion fencing that blocks turtles from accessing the pavement. They have to be at least 2 to 3 feet high and buried 6 to 12 inches in the ground to prevent them from burrowing underneath.
The tunnels have reportedly become more common in the last decade in the U.S. Sometimes culverts are even repurposed as turtle highways.
KEYSTONE SPECIES
Northshield explained to the board that freshwater turtles are a keystone species, meaning they are “vital” to the ecosystem.
She pointed out that they keep wetlands healthy by consuming decaying plants and dead fish, which gets rid of harmful bacteria in the water and allows other water dwellers to survive and thrive.
Turtles also excrete nutrients back into the environment and are seed spreaders, distributing seeds they’ve eaten around their habitats where they grow and propagate.
Turtles also have a place in the food chain because their eggs provide nourishment for mammals such as raccoons, skunks, and foxes and birds of prey such as crows and ravens.
Great blue herons, egrets, largemouth bass, and water snakes happily snarf up juvenile turtles while hungry hawks and eagles will have a go at medium-sized adults.
Turtles themselves prey on small fish and snails.
The predator that turtles need to worry about the most, however, isn’t one that’s going to nosh on them, it’s going to squash them.
According to environmentamerica.org, aside from vanishing habitats, encounters with cars are the biggest threat to turtles.
One researcher its website cited found that 98 percent of turtles do not survive their first road crossing.
High fatality areas are a “huge disruption to turtle populations, especially for a species that is already threatened, it said.
In North Salem, the worst area appears to be between the North Salem Firehouse and St. James Episcopal Church.
However, there are other spots where folks have reported numerous turtle fatalities, including heavily traveled Route 22 and Valeria Circle, which is near a body of water.
RAISING AWARENESS
Supervisor Warren Lucas, who along with members of the Town Board was receptive to the idea of “Turtle Crossing” signs, later looped Northshield in on a brainstorming call with Lisa Masi, a wildlife biologist for the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Region 3.
“You must be very proud of her because not too many younger people do this type of stuff,” Lucas told Northshield’s parents.
(The state Department of Transportation might have to be consulted before signs can be installed on a state road.)
Northshield recalled that last year, she and her family had been driving along Titicus Road near the firehouse when they noticed several hatchlings that had been run over. One of them was still alive and apparently unharmed. They helped it get to the other side.
On Aug. 8, she was passing the same spot and saw that two hatchlings with their shells split open. Both died. There were another 10 tiny bodies nearby.
Her parents told her later that they had come to the rescue of at least two other turtles at that crossing.
That’s when she decided something had to be done.
“I think most people don’t want to harm animals while driving but are often simply unaware that what in front of them is a living creature until it’s too late. Others may just assume they will make it out of the way in time,” she wrote to Halston Media.
“Either way I think knowing to drive with caution around wetlands and bodies of water would help to prevent further incidents,” Northshield added.
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