Conte Refuge adds 80 acres in Chesterfield to 'conservation mosaic'

CHESTERFIELD - The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced Monday that is has partnered with the Nature Conservancy to add an 80-acre parcel in Chesterfield to the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge.

The land was owned by Jeffrey Poirier of Berkshire Hardwoods Inc., who sold the property Nov. 22 to Fish & Wildlife for $320,000. It is located along the Dead Branch Brook, off East Street about a quarter mile from Main Street (Route 143.)

"This process has been about four years in the making," Poirier said. "There has been a lot of conversation and kicking the tires prior to today."

On Monday afternoon, U.S. Rep. John W. Olver of Amherst joined Poirier and representatives from the Nature Conservancy and the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge on a hike through the newly protected area.

Although it was the first day of hunting season, Olver was still eager to visit the site, pushing through underbrush and slogging through mud.

"Over the years I have worked with the Nature Conservancy and Fish & Wildlife on a number of projects, and I have tried to secure earmarked funds when they are available," he said. "This is an important project because it creates a nice network of protected areas in important habitat."

Markelle Smith, a land protection specialist with the Nature Conservancy, said the property is a key parcel due to the "amazing amount of biodiversity."

As well as being home to deer, moose, black bear, coyote, red and gray fox, beaver, river otter, fisher, freshwater brook trout and Atlantic salmon, the land is critical habitat for wood turtles, a species of special concern, as well as several rare dragonfly species, according to Smith.

A recent survey conducted by aquatic biologist Ethan Nedeau of Amherst-based ecological consultancy Biodrawversity, reported that the area also provides the most promising freshwater mussel habitat in the entire Westfield River watershed. According to the Nature Conservancy, the watershed boasts some of the healthiest waters in southern New England.

Olver noted that because of development pressures along the Westfield River, it falls to the Fish & Wildlife Service to find the resources to preserve what he termed, in a statement, "one of the most fragile ecosystems within western Massachusetts."

The acquisition of this land helps establish a significant north-south conservation corridor that helps protect Dead Branch Brook and Long Pond, both of which are located within the newly preserved land off East Street. It abuts the Nature Conservancy's Bisbee preserve, located on the opposite side of East between East and Main streets, and also provides a connection to Fish & Wildlife's 580 acre Fisk Meadows Wildlife Management Area. Fisk Meadows is situated on the other side of Main Street, and also abuts the Bisbee preserve.

"This gives species greater ease of movement in a bigger forest block," Markelle said. "And when you add in the Westfield river, it becomes an extremely import place to protect."

Funding for this acquisition comes from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is maintained by money collected by the federal government from offshore oil and gas leases to be used for conservation work across the country.

"This is an exemplary use of the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, and we're extremely grateful to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and former property owner Jeff Poirier for making it a reality," Wayne Klockner, director of The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts, said in a statement. Klockner also took part in the hike.

The Conservancy works with other agencies and organizations to facilitate the purchase of land for the purpose of habitat conservation.

"We helped to identify the property as a potential conservation area, and then helped out negotiating the acquisition," said Conservancy spokesman James Miller.

The Conservancy recently purchased 69 acres nearby along the headwaters of Roberts Meadow Brook, which will be preserved as open space, adding to the list of protected parcels in the watershed.

According to Andrew French, project leader for the Conte Refuge, the acquisition represents another important piece in an ongoing conservation effort.

"This is one parcel of land that will likely be one of many pieces in the conservation puzzle that we are trying to assemble with our partner organizations," French said. "By working with willing land owners to protect this area piece by piece, we can put together a conservation mosaic of land that is structurally and functionally sound."

According to French, Fish & Wildlife typically opens up its areas to hunting and fishing, hiking, wildlife viewing, environmental interpretation and photography.

The Conte Refuge was established in 1997 to conserve and protect the abundance of native plants and wildlife that thrive in the Connecticut River Watershed in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.



Source: http://www.gazettenet.com/2011/11/29/80-acres-in-chesterfield-adds-to-039conservation-mosaic039


Daily Hampshire Gazette © 2011 All rights reserved

South Shore Natural Science Center welcome Northern Red-bellied Cooter

Welcome the newest member of the South Shore Natural Science Center family-- a Northern Red-bellied Cooter .

By Ruth Thompson

Wicked Local Hanover

[PHOTO -- The newest member of the science center family, an adult

Red-bellied Cooter, rests on the edge of the pond at the EcoZone.

Beside her is her “friend,” a much smaller painted turtle.]

NORWELL —

She spent most of the afternoon lounging on the flat rock soaking in the rays. However, should she have been so inclined for a refreshing dip, the murky water of the pond was just a short slide away.

“She” is an adult Northern Red-bellied Cooter and she is the newest member of the South Shore Natural Science Center family.

She made her media debut two weeks ago and was completely unaffected.

Karen Kurkoski, naturalist and animal curator for the science center, said a veterinarian who examined the turtle believes she is between 23 and 25 years old. She weighs 10 pounds and the length of her shell measures 13-1/2 inches.

“She’s the biggest turtle we have,” Kurkoski said, adding that the cooter is in good health.

Kurkoski pointed out that the non-releasable animals, such as the adult cooter, are not given personalized names to avoid the perception that they are pets.

“They are ‘ambassadors to the wild’ and are handled for teaching purposes only,” Kurkoski said. “We are trying to educate the public to leave wildlife in the wild and obtain their pet animals from pet stores and other comparable sources.”

The science center acquired the turtle after receiving a call from MassWildLife’s Dr. Tom French who asked if the science center would be interested in taking the turtle.

There was no hesitation, said Kurkoski.

“Of course we wanted her,” she said. “We’d always wanted an adult Red-bellied Cooter.”

Kurkoski said that, according to French, the turtle was probably picked up by someone on vacation in one of the states where the turtles are naturally found, kept in captivity for awhile and then released in Connecticut where she was discovered. The turtles are not native to Connecticut.

According to the Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program, a branch of the Mass. Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, the primary range of the Red-bellied Cooter is from the coastal plain of New Jersey south to North Carolina and inland to West Virginia. There is pocket of cooters – what’s known as an “isolated disjunct population” – confined to the ponds of Plymouth County.

“Because the exact location of her origination is not known, she can’t be released back into the wild,” she said.

Northern Red-bellied Cooters could live to be 40 - 55 years old, Kurkoski said, though she added that they wouldn’t get much bigger than the new turtle at the science center.

“She has reached full adult growth.”

Kurkoski said the Red-bellied Cooter is the second largest turtle in Massachusetts after the snapping turtle.

The turtle shares the EcoZone Turtle Pond at the science center with six other turtles and five fish.

“She gets along with the other turtles,” Kurkoski said. “There’s one painted turtle that hangs out with her.”

Judy Azanow, the public relations director at the science center, said the turtle is a great teaching tool.

That’s especially true now considering the science center is beginning another head start program with Red-bellied Cooter hatchlings, on display just a few feet from the EcoZone pond.

“People can see how the turtles start out and how they look as an adult,” Azanow said.

Kurkoski added that most baby cooters wouldn’t make it to an adult without protection, which is why the head start program is so important.

Despite her intimidating size, the turtle is very mild-mannered, according to Kurkoski.

She’s fed a diet of red and green leaf lettuce as well as Romaine lettuce. Kurkoski said the cooter also gets a protein stick.

“The mainstay of these turtles is plant life,” Kurkoski said.

Both Kurkoski and Azanow said the turtle seems to be fitting in quite nicely at her new and permanent home at the science center where she is being well cared for and looked upon by visitors with a sense of awe.

“We had some schoolchildren in and you should have seen their faces when they saw her,” Kurkoski said. “People are surprised at how big she is. And they are certainly impressed by her.”

For more information on the turtle, or the other animals, programs and exhibits at the science center, visit www.ssnsc.org

Ruth Thompson can be reached at rthompson@wickedlocal.com.

Copyright 2011 Hanover Mariner. Some rights reserved

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/hanover/news/enviroment/x213524184/South-Shore-Natural-Science-Center-welcome-Northern-Red-bellied-Cooter

Quincy Marine Center nursing "zombie" turtle back to life

During this past weekend's snowstorm, a walker along Martha's Vineyards' Edgartown beach came across a near dead Kemp's Ridley Turtle, in a "zombie-like state" and suffering from hypothermic shock from the below freezing temperatures.

The endangered sea turtle was rescued just in time, as it was immediately taken to a wildlife sanctuary and is now safely recovering inside New England Aquarium’s Marine Animal Care Center in Quincy.

Massachusetts typically sees hundreds of these endangered turtles popping up along the coastline throughout the winter season. Beyond life threatening hypothermia, nearly all of the effected sea turtles also suffer from dehydration, malnutrition, metabolic problems and possibly even pneumonia.

Last year, more than 120 endangered and threatened sea turtles were brought to the Quincy Marine Care Center, for treatment and recovery until the weather permitted their return to the Ocean.

The rescued turtle, found early Sunday afternoon, will be slowly re-warmed, at a few degrees warmer each day, until it's body temperature returns to it's normal state in the low 70's.

Photo Courtesy of the New England Aquarium.

Copyright 2011 The Patriot Ledger. Some rights reserved.

Source: http://www.patriotledger.com/mobile/x189903595/Quincy-Marine-Center-nursing-zombie-turtle-back-to-life

Lecture series celebrates 'Year of the Turtle' at Wellfleet Library

WELLFLEET — Out of the oil spill into the spoon — that could be the mantra of the modern-day turtle. When they’re not dodging cars on roads or contending with habitat loss, turtles, terrapins and their terrestrial counterparts, tortoises, face a host of challenges, from the degradation of the marine environment to poachers who put them in soup.

“2011 has been designated the year of the turtle by international turtle conservation groups to focus on the fact that turtles around the world are among the most endangered species that there are,” says Bob Prescott, director of Mass. Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. “Turtles in general have not adapted well to the 21st century.”

Prescott will be giving a three-part seminar, “Celebrating the Year of the Turtle,” at the Wellfleet Library starting at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 3, and continuing on Nov. 10 and 17. Just ahead of sea turtle stranding season, the series will educate participants on the species that inhabit — or frequent — the Cape, and the efforts to preserve them.

“Turtles are sometimes the first species of wildlife that people can see,” Prescott says. Here on the Cape, “we’re very fortunate that there are a number of species that we have on a regular basis. Kids go to the ponds and see painted turtles sitting on rocks, snapping turtles coming out to lay eggs.”

Just last week, he adds, naturalists exploring the sanctuary swamp were pleasantly surprised to encounter a box turtle, rarely seen after Columbus Day weekend.

Box turtles will be the first topic of the Nov. 3 seminar, which will provide an overview of turtles.

“The box turtle is a species of special concern in Massachusetts,” Prescott says. “I’ll talk about their natural history, why they’re doing particularly well on the Outer Cape.” Recognizable by their domed, orange-and-black shells, box turtles benefit from the Cape’s mix of woodlands and open meadows, which offer an ideal combination of shadowy hideout and sunny nesting space.

Diamondback terrapins are the focus of the second session. These coastal dwellers, often found in marshy spots or estuaries, are the subject of a study in Wellfleet Harbor, where 75 diamondbacks were tagged with transmitters this past spring. The transmitters will allow researchers to track them. The marshes of South Wellfleet are also a hotspot for terrapin hatchlings, which emerge from the nests in late summer and early fall.

The Cape represents the northernmost extremity of their range.

“In some places, they’re doing fairly well — Wellfleet, Eastham. Orleans is a bit of a challenge,” Prescott says — particularly in the Pleasant Bay area, where scientists have noted a dip in the diamondback terrapin population.

No turtle seminar in November would be complete without a look at Kemp’s ridleys, loggerheads and other sea turtles, which are on the syllabus for the last seminar. November typically marks the start of sea turtle stranding season, and Prescott and his team of sanctuary naturalists have led a concerted effort to rescue the washed-up turtles for the past 35 years.

“The first [Kemp’s ridley] turtle I found was in 1974. It was a dead one,” Prescott says. The rescue program that has evolved since then uses volunteers to comb the bay beaches when winds and tides conspire to push the dinner-plate-sized Kemp’s ridleys, cold-stunned by dropping water temperatures, to shore. Once the creatures are retrieved from the beach, they’re transported to the New England Aquarium for rest and rehab. They’re released back into the wild after they’ve recuperated.

Prescott says the stranding patterns have shifted in recent years.

“If anything it seems like the stranding season has been more compressed, with turtles stranding later, from Thanksgiving to the end of December. But the numbers have been high,” he says. “It’s been crazy with [high] turtle numbers over a shorter period of time. It puts more pressure on volunteers, everybody.”

Some of Prescott’s talk will address the need for new volunteers. The lecture will also touch on “what turtles are doing here in the summertime.” Hard-shelled and loggerhead turtles are seen in local waters throughout the summer and into the fall, he says.

Prescott points out that the stranding of sea turtles on the Cape’s bay shores is a phenomenon that dates back centuries.

“They turn up in the literature, they turn up in the Native American midden sites. It’s just an accident of geography. They just get caught,” he says.

To register for the seminar, sign up at the front desk of the Wellfleet Public Library, 55 West Main St. There is a fee of $5 for each session.

Copyright 2011 Wicked Local Truro. Some rights reserved

Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/truro/news/enviroment/x1769239937/Lecture-series-celebrates-Year-of-the-Turtle-at-Wellfleet-Library#ixzz1cHJ2Zcmu

First Terrapin Hatchling 2011 Emerges

Tiny Diamondback Terrapin Hatchling Emerges

By Don Lewis

The first diamondback terrapin hatchling of 2011 emerged on Friday afternoon after 63 days of incubation under the hot summer sands of Lieutenant Island in South Wellfleet. Terrapins are medium sized coastal turtles found along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. They can be found in Southern New England estuaries and salt marsh ecosystems, and are protected as a threatened species in Massachusetts and an endangered species in Rhode Island. Wellfleet Bay on Outer Cape Cod marks the northernmost habitat in the world for this rare hard-shelled reptile.

In June and July terrapin females crawl ashore from brackish estuaries to lay nests in sandy uplands. They deposit an average of 12-to-13 eggs in each clutch, and usually lay two nests a year. As many as 90% of unprotected nests can be devoured by a host of predators, large and small, from raccoons, skunks, foxes and coyotes to fly larvae, red ants and beach grass roots. Once hatchlings emerge from the nest, they fall prey to these same large predators, augmented by crows, gulls and raptors, as they scramble to the safety of nursery habitat in the salt marsh. As the tide floods in, crabs and fish join the attack on these tiny, yet tasty critters.

"Pipped" Terrapin Egg Nearly Ready to Hatch

When the Turtle Journal team (www.turtlejournal.com) checked a nest that had been laid on 17 June on the south shore of Lieutenant Island, they discovered that one of the top eggs had "pipped." Turtle hatchlings are equipped with a small, sharp egg tooth just below the nostrils. When ready, the hatchling scratches this tool against the egg wall until the shell is pierced. The initial hole quickly oozes albumin (see above), and the baby turtle begins to use its strong, sharp claws to rip and widen the breach. Observations have shown that the whole process can take four to five days from initial "pipping" of the egg until the hatchling emerges, tunnels to the surface and scrambles to the safety of nearby vegetation.

As the team probed deeper into the nest, they discovered an egg that had been "pipped" for several days with a substantial tear in the shell and a hatchling itching for freedom. As soon as sunlight touched the baby's face, it sprang to action and squirmed free of its egg shell. This hatchling had incubated in its egg for 63 days. The average incubation time for mid-June nests ranges between 55 and 75 days, depending on summer temperatures and exposure of the sand atop the nest to direct sunlight.

Terrapin Hatchling Season Begins in Southeastern Massachusetts

Friday's discovery is a harbinger of things to come ... and to come quickly. Once hatchling emergence begins, it kicks instantly into high gear. The beautiful warm sunshine forecast for this weekend will cue hundreds of hatchlings to tunnel to the surface and scramble for safety. Predators will be similarly cued to hatchling emergence, and those few feet from the exposed nest in sandy uplands to camouflage in thick vegetation are the most dangerous passage in the life of a terrapin. As you stroll the shoreline this weekend, look down and keep a sharp watch for tiny babies bubbling to the surface of dunes, coastal banks and dirt paths and roadways. If you discover a baby turtle, give a call to the 24/7 turtle hotline at 508-274-5108.

Mass Audubon and Turtle Journal have been involved in diamondback terrapin conservation from the South Coast of Massachusetts to the Outer Cape for more than three decades to reverse the decline of this threatened species. Hundreds of terrapin nests that were discovered in June and July by researchers and volunteers have been protected with predator excluders (chicken wire cages). If you run across one of these protected nests that dot the Wellfleet coastline, and you detect a baby turtle within the cage, give a holler to the hotline.

Not only diamondback terrapins are hatching. Other Massachusetts turtle species, such as painteds, spotteds, boxes and snappers, are also ready to emerge throughout the Commonwealth.

If you're looking for a nature walk that might offer the chance to spot one of these exquisite hatchlings, the Goose Pond or the Bay View trails at Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary off West Road in South Wellfleet would be a perfect choice.

For more information about this topic, for access to illustrative images or to arrange an interview, contact Don Lewis at (508) 274-5108 or email him at theturtleguy@comcast.net. The embedded images are the sole intellectual property of Don Lewis and Sue Wieber Nourse who authorize the use of these photographs to illustrate this story.

Don Lewis is executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Districts; Sue Wieber Nourse is a marine researcher, textbook author and master educator. Known as the Turtle Guy, Don and his spouse and partner, Sue Wieber Nourse, have led research, rescue and conservation activities on Cape Cod and around the globe for more than a decade. They own and operate Cape Cod Consultants, an environmental solutions company that specializes in wildlife management and habitat assessments that protect nature while enabling dreams. Lewis and Wieber Nourse document the nature of coastal Massachusetts on their web site, Turtle Journal (www.turtlejournal.com).

Source: http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/2011/08/20/first-diamondback-terrapin-hatchlings-em?blog=53

Ten rescued turtles released off Cape Cod

HARWICHPORT, Mass.—

Workers from the New England Aquarium have released 10 endangered sea turtles back into the wild, months after they were rescued after stranding themselves on Cape Cod.

Aquarium officials say the turtles were released from a lobster boat Friday night in Nantucket Sound.

The turtles were the last group to be released from among those rescued during the 2010 stranding season. The turtles became trapped in Cape Cod Bay as the water chilled through the autumn, before washing up on beaches in November and December.

Aquarium officials say these turtles were among the season's toughest cases. Some had major shell fractures that required surgery, others had pneumonia and exotic infections.

Two of the released turtles had satellite tags attached, so their movements can be tracked.

Source:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2011/08/13/10_rescued_turtles_released_off_cape_cod/

© Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Second Dead Leatherback Turtle Found

Nantucket Sound

By: John H. Hough

Published: 08/02/11

A second leatherback turtle was found dead in Nantucket Sound this week. A 567-pound sea turtle was discovered by a boater off Edgartown floating entangled in a net with a buoy wrapped around its neck.

The creature was found at 7:20 AM on Sunday and towed to the mouth of Falmouth Inner Harbor where it could be picked up by the New England Aquarium and taken to its new Quincy laboratory for a necropsy.

Officials moored the turtle, which was floating, near the entrance of the harbor out of the way of boaters, about 20 feet from the signal light at the harbor’s entrance.

Evan A. Hutker and Anna L. Mihai, who were having dinner near the mouth of Falmouth Inner Harbor at the time of the turtle’s arrival, could not make out what it was with any certainty, but soon noticed that what was being towed was a large, dead animal. “At first I thought it was a big pile of nets” said Mr. Hutker. “When we looked closer it looked like a turtle.”

The turtle came to Falmouth Harbor less than a week after a 440-pound leatherback washed ashore on the beach in front of the Tides Motel. That sea turtle was found upside down with four propeller strikes and hull paint on its back, suggesting it succumbed to one of the Cape’s most common causes of leatherback fatality: being hit by recreational boaters.

After spending the night moored outside of Falmouth Inner Harbor, the turtle found entangled off Edgartown was towed by the Falmouth Harbor Master’s office into the harbor where it could be lifted out of the water and into the bed of the New England Aquarium’s pickup truck.

Assistant Harbor Master Daniel Gould, escorted by the Massachusetts environmental police, motored up the harbor with the carcass in tow. Mr. Gould backed the turtle dockside near a slip at the far end of the parking lot and the town boat ramp while Deputy Harbor Master William Palm maneuvered a forklift into place. The carcass was attached to the forklift and hauled slowly out of the water and onto the pavement while lines were untied on the carcass and the lift’s forks readjusted. Mr. Palm put the forks to the pavement to get under the turtle, and with patient precision, lifted it into the pickup truck.

The law enforcement branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be investigating the entangled line that was still attached to a trap when the turtle was taken into the harbor.

The leatherback hauled out yesterday that was found entangled in gear, New England Aquarium spokesman Anthony LaCasse pointed out, is interesting because in the span of less than a week the two most common causes of death for leatherback sea turtles may have turned up in Falmouth, though he was quick to point out that at this point both turtles may have suffered their respective fates postmortem, and as of yet there is no definitive cause of death.

Fascinated onlookers came down to see the carcass that had formerly been a living juvenile leatherback weighing more than 600 pounds before decomposition took its toll.

The leatherback, which is listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered, exhibits some unusual qualities for turtles. It holds the title of world’s largest reptile, weighing in around 800 to 900 pounds; the largest on record was over 2,000 pounds. Strikingly different from most sea turtles, their carapace, or shell, is not made of bone. Instead about an inch and a half of tough leathery skin covers their ridged back, hence their name, leatherback.

An unusual characteristic among reptiles is the fact that the leatherback has the ability to regulate its internal temperature.

Mr. LaCasse warned that boaters who find leatherback sea turtles entangled should not attempt to free them. Their size and strength can be a serious danger for people who, despite good intentions, could end up themselves entangled with a leviathan many times their own size. Boaters are advised to report the incident to the Coast Guard and stay on the scene so that trained officials can find the turtle and free it.

The Center for Coastal Studies freed two leatherbacks in the last week, including a 700-pound turtle disentangled off Sesuit harbor in Dennis.

Robert Prescott, director of the Massachusetts Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, noted that a number of dead turtles have been spotted in Vineyard Sound as well as the reports of several dead loggerheads washing ashore.

Several officials noted the increase in the jellyfish population to be an indication of a possible increase in the local leatherback sea turtle population as they follow their food into the area.

Source: http://www.capenews.net/communities/falmouth/news/1239