Turtle species thriving in Wilton wildlife preserve

WILTON — The Blanding’s turtle, first discovered in Wilton in 2003, is thriving in the sandy, open lands in the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park, according to environmental officials.

One Sunday in late spring, Bradley Birge observed that assertion for himself when he spotted an unusual looking turtle enter his back yard and start digging small holes.

What Birge and his wife saw was a threatened Blanding’s turtle laying her eggs and then burying them.

“We watched her for hours,” Birge said. “It’s surprising how well she covered the area,” Birge said about the mother turtle. Birge is the administrator of planning and economic development for the city of Saratoga Springs.

Birge’s home is not far from protected open space in the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park.

He put a crate around the area where the eggs were buried and called the preserve and park office the next day.

Andrea Chaloux, who is studying the Blanding’s turtle as part of her master’s degree work with the University at Albany, came out to the house.

Chaloux has been studying the Blanding’s turtle in the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park for five years.

Her project has been co-funded by Saratoga PLAN (Preserving Land and Nature), a not-for-profit land trust organization, and the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park, a partnership that includes The Nature Conservancy, the town of Wilton, Saratoga County and New York State.

The Blanding’s turtle has a bright yellow chin and a brown-green shell shaped like an army helmet. It is between 7-and-9 inches long when an adult. The first Blanding’s found locally was discovered in the preserve and park in 2003.

The Blanding’s turtle, which is on the state’s threatened species list, is named after William Blanding (1772-1857), a Philadelphia naturalist who first observed and described the species.

Sarah Clarkin, preserve and park executive director, said people didn’t think the Blanding’s turtle lived in the Saratoga County region.

“The discovery of the Blanding’s turtle in WWPP study area surprised everyone as the nearest population is approximately 75 miles away,” Clarkin said.

Since Chaloux started her study, which includes attaching by Epoxy small transmitters on the shell of the turtles, 13 adult turtles have been found and their movements recorded.

Between 2004 and 2007 a total 49 baby turtles have hatched.

But this year alone, 32 baby turtles — including 14 from the eggs laid in Birge’s back yard — have hatched and are living in the preserve and park.

“We were excited,” Chaloux said. “It was a success, definitely.”

Chaloux said she measured the area where the 14 eggs were buried in Birge’s yard, reproduced a similar area in land in the preserve and park,and then moved the eggs to this protected property.

“We had a 100 percent success rate,” Chaloux said.

A turtle had also laid eggs in another yard near the preserve and park but only five of the 13 eggs hatched into baby turtles.

Chaloux, who is completing her study of the turtle this year, said the creatures appear to be thriving in the preserve's sandy, open lands, which is an area of about 2,000 acres of protected open space on the east side of the Northway in Wilton generally located between Ballard Road and Route 50.

“The WWPP is pleased to have been able to help sponsor the study and, as a result, target conservation efforts to protect the turtle’s habitat,” Clarkin said.

“We have learned that the habitat restoration The Nature Conservancy and New York State are undertaking is helping the Blanding’s turtle and numerous other species that depend upon the sand plains habitat and wetland complexes found here,” Clarkin said in an e-mail message.

The same type of open, sandy conditions in which the endangered Karner blue butterfly thrives is also favored by the Blanding’s turtle.

“The restoration of the more open areas, filled with native grasses and wildflowers as well as trees, provides nesting areas for the Blanding’s,” Clarkin said.

Both Clarkin and Chaloux said turtle nests have been discovered on recently restored habitat in the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park.

Chaloux said the Blanding’s turtle does not reach maturity until it is between 14 and 20 years old. She said the turtles can live 70 years and continue to reproduce most of those years.