Volunteers

Attachments : Volunteers needed to assist with Diamondback Terrapin projectBy Katie Wais Staff Writer INDIAN RIVER INLET _ The Delaware Center of the Inland Bays is recruiting volunteers to help monitor the 2007 terrapin nesting season. A meeting will be held May 17 at 6 p.m. at the Center for the Inland Bays, located on the north side of the Indian River Inlet Bridge behind the Coast Guard Station, for anyone interested in becoming a TERP (Terrapin Education and Rescue Program). There will be a short presentation and refreshments will be provided. TERP T-shirts will be provided to those who register as TERP volunteers. There will be an initial sign-up for the road patrol and postcards will be provided for distribution in the community. Other volunteer opportunities are available.Each year in mid-May, just as people are heading for the beaches, so are the female diamondback terrapins. From mid-May through the end of July, the diamondback terrapin, the only turtle that spends its entire life in brackish water, leaves the relative safety of the coastal marshes and bays to go the higher, sandy ground of the Atlantic dunes to lay its eggs. To reach their nesting areas, female terrapins are killed each year attempting to cross Rt. 1 in Delaware Seashore State Park, one of the state_s prime nesting areas for this species.This mortality carries impacts heavily on the overall terrapin population because female terrapins mature late and have a long reproductive life-span, so the loss of a single female represents the loss of many years of potential offspring. Terrapin mortality is down in the past few years since the fencing was installed along the west side of Rt. 1. Center for the Inland Bays hopes to continue this positive trend with the help of TERP volunteers, to protect the most important segment of the terrapin population and the future of the Diamondback Terrapin in the Delaware Inland Bays. Volunteers will be given the opportunity to sign up for a variety of jobs _ including road patrol volunteers, exclusion fence maintenance, public outreach and education and terrapin headstart team _ to help ensure a successful nesting season for the terrapins. For more information, contact Josh Thompson at the Center for the Inland Bays at 302-226-8105 or by e-mail at joshthompson@….kwais@…302-537-1881, Ext. 106 Marguerite Whildenwww.terrapininstitute.org410 370 9171