I'm hoping someone local can chime in here and give us their perspective.
Thursday, October, 09, 2014, Hamilton Community News.com
Why did the turtles risk it all to cross the busy road in the dark?
A five-year study by the Royal Botanical Gardens knows the answer – to get to a sunny nesting spot – and is offering potential ways to keep them from making the potentially fatal treks across Cootes and Olympic drives.
These include additional fencing along both Dundas roads to encourage turtles to use underpasses, removal of a Desjardins Canal weir by Olympic that blocks their path to the other side and more nesting sites on the south side of Cootes.
Tys Theysmeyer, an ecologist and head of natural areas for the RBG, said a Hamilton Conservation Authority plan to do the latter as part of a proposed realignment of Spencer Creek along Cootes Drive is a fantastic start.
But he said he’d also like the city to establish a wildlife corridors committee, as recommended by a wide-ranging RBG recovery plan, to find ways to reduce road kills.
Other recommendations include cutting the speed limit on Cootes to 60 km-h from 80 and closing King Street at Olympic.
“That King Street sits on the line between the upland that faces south and all the water, so if you’ve made it that far (as a turtle) you really want to go upland there, overKing Street,” Theysmeyer said.
“Where the morning sun strikes the ground tends to be where you’ll find the nesting areas. That’s also drier ground. The dew comes off right away,” he said.
“It’s one of the most important variables in turtle nest selection. If you could (you’d) explain to them it’d be a really good idea to go over there, to not cross the road, but they’re just going with the landscape and the sun angles.”
The RBG study found there are four native species left in the area – endangered Blanding’s and maps, snapping and painted – with about one-third of an estimated population of 1,500 in Cootes Paradise.
That’s thought to be about half the number in the 1980s and no longer includes three species from back then, musk, spiny softshell and wood turtles.
Theysmeyer, who outlined the recovery plan to conservation authority directors last week, said this area was the last on Lake Ontario to have spiny softshells.
Of those remaining, the Blanding’s turtle is internationally rare, with only about 25 left locally, three or four of them in Cootes Paradise, “almost not enough to sustain them there,” he said.
“We thought we were actually done until this year, when we found an actual female,” he said. “Suddenly, we have hope.”
Thursday, October, 09, 2014, Hamilton Community News.com
Why did the turtles risk it all to cross the busy road in the dark?
A five-year study by the Royal Botanical Gardens knows the answer – to get to a sunny nesting spot – and is offering potential ways to keep them from making the potentially fatal treks across Cootes and Olympic drives.
These include additional fencing along both Dundas roads to encourage turtles to use underpasses, removal of a Desjardins Canal weir by Olympic that blocks their path to the other side and more nesting sites on the south side of Cootes.
Tys Theysmeyer, an ecologist and head of natural areas for the RBG, said a Hamilton Conservation Authority plan to do the latter as part of a proposed realignment of Spencer Creek along Cootes Drive is a fantastic start.
But he said he’d also like the city to establish a wildlife corridors committee, as recommended by a wide-ranging RBG recovery plan, to find ways to reduce road kills.
Other recommendations include cutting the speed limit on Cootes to 60 km-h from 80 and closing King Street at Olympic.
“That King Street sits on the line between the upland that faces south and all the water, so if you’ve made it that far (as a turtle) you really want to go upland there, overKing Street,” Theysmeyer said.
“Where the morning sun strikes the ground tends to be where you’ll find the nesting areas. That’s also drier ground. The dew comes off right away,” he said.
“It’s one of the most important variables in turtle nest selection. If you could (you’d) explain to them it’d be a really good idea to go over there, to not cross the road, but they’re just going with the landscape and the sun angles.”
The RBG study found there are four native species left in the area – endangered Blanding’s and maps, snapping and painted – with about one-third of an estimated population of 1,500 in Cootes Paradise.
That’s thought to be about half the number in the 1980s and no longer includes three species from back then, musk, spiny softshell and wood turtles.
Theysmeyer, who outlined the recovery plan to conservation authority directors last week, said this area was the last on Lake Ontario to have spiny softshells.
Of those remaining, the Blanding’s turtle is internationally rare, with only about 25 left locally, three or four of them in Cootes Paradise, “almost not enough to sustain them there,” he said.
“We thought we were actually done until this year, when we found an actual female,” he said. “Suddenly, we have hope.”
