Wetlands Institute

Attachments : Fence goes up to cut down on turtle deaths Barriers protect terrapins crossing roads to lay eggs By BRIAN IANIERI Staff Writer, (609) 463-6713 Published: Monday, May 14, 2007 Roger Wood (left) director of research and Jake Owens, research assistant at the institute, install barrier fencing along the boulevard. Members of the Wetlands Institute in Middle Township, were busy installing about 7000 feet of barrier fencing along Stone Harbor and Avalon Boulevards Friday May 11, 2007, before the start of breeding season for diamond backed terrapin turtles. Staff photo by Dale GerhardMIDDLE TOWNSHIP _ __Why did the turtle cross the road?__ is not a philosophical question. The terrapins’ motives are clear as nature: to lay eggs on high ground. Over the years, researchers at the Wetlands Institute in Middle Township have dedicated the nesting season to solving a more relevant question: __How do you prevent the turtle from crossing the road?__ That answer has been, in part, fences. And more fences. A half-mile stretch along Stone Harbor Boulevard produced more than 40 road kills in 2004. The next year, fencing was installed there, and the deaths dropped to five. Officials are expanding the fencing program this year to Avalon Boulevard, where last year more than 40 terrapins met their end between tire and asphalt. Researchers record statistics and GPS locations of road kill each year. __That’s going to save an awful lot of terrapins and make a really big difference,__ said Roger Wood, the director of research at the Wetlands Institute and a zoology professor at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey in Galloway Township. In the future, they hope to put fencing along the Margate causeway, another hot spot for turtle deaths. They are also experimenting with a more durable fencing that could be left in the ground all year, instead of the arduous process of digging and hammering the fences into place and then removing them. __We’re always going to be looking for ways to reduce the encounters between terrapins and people,__ Wood said. Development on dunes and barrier islands destroyed much of the diamondback terrapins’ habitat. Roadways offer high ground too, although the result of fast cars meeting slow turtles is obvious. __They end up wandering around looking for barrier habitat, and the best that we have around here are coastal causeways,__ said Ilene Eberly, the institute’s research coordinator. __The fact that all they have left are the embankments on roads, it’s kind of a sad situation.__ For the past few years, the Wetlands Institute has been experimenting with different kinds of fencing to block the path of a pregnant diamondback terrapin. Each year, the institute studies terrapins using a variety of techniques that produces a plethora of data. They recently received a grant to study whether materials taken from dredging can make suitable nesting places for turtles. One ongoing study records data from turtles mounted with sensors to record their movements once in the water. Until the nesting season, their movements and habits are largely unknown. A crew consisting mostly of interns, dubbed the turtle patrol, drives around each spring to move terrapins safely away from roads. The eggs from the dead ones can be incubated and released in the salt marshes. Thousands of baby terrapins have been released in the wild this way. Terrapin eggs and baby terrapins face a tough road. The vast majority are eaten. Keeping the female terrapins alive while nesting is an important task, researchers said. __The major areas of terrapins getting killed on roads in the entire range of terrapins seems to be here in southern New Jersey. It’s a problem that’s more severe here than anywhere else, so it’s important to find ways to minimize it,__ Wood said. There are many steps that have made people aware of the terrapins’ nesting plight. Public education, road patrols and fencing have all helped, Wood said. So have crab traps that have terrapin excluders. Last year, 366 terrapins died on 38 miles of roads in Cape May County last year, said Jake Owens, a research assistant. The numbers are often in the 400s, although years with 600 or more have been reported. To e-mail Brian Ianieri at The Press: BIanieri@… Marguerite Whildenwww.terrapininstitute.org410 370 9171