(Photo by Kiley Briggs of the Orianne Society)
What species do you tend to think of when you hear the term “wildlife habitat”? Do you think of moose, deer, and bear? Do you think of birds? What about reptiles and amphibians? Most landowners probably think more about the first two options. The charismatic big game species and the beautiful songbirds definitely draw people’s interest. This summer, NorthWoods has been conducting wildlife habitat assessments on private properties throughout the Northeast Kingdom. These assessments look at the overall wildlife value of a property by looking for important habitat features. These features include: snags, cavity trees, coarse/fine woody material, food and water sources, and areas of cover (dense underbrush, rock piles, crevices in boulders…etc).
Last month, Devin Straley (Forestry and Conservation Science Intern) and Mel Auffredou (ECO AmeriCorps) met up with Kiley Briggs from the Orianne Society and one of our partners, Patrick Hurley from the Memphremagog Watershed Association, to learn about wood turtles, a species of conservation concern in the Northeast. The goal of this outing was to help our NorthWoods crew learn how to better identify important habitats for wood turtles in our region.
Wood turtles are found in floodplain forests and wet meadows adjacent to streams and small rivers with slow to moderate flow. Herbaceous plants and shrubs including raspberries, strawberries, willows, alders, and various grasses provide forage and greatly enhance habitat. Beginning in November, wood turtles will hibernate at the bottom of deep pools, undercut banks, and submerged woody debris within streams. They can overwinter alone or in large groups. During the spring and early summer, wood turtles will usually lay eggs on sandy stream banks and sandbars, but will also utilize the sides of roads/railroads, gravel pits, and clear-cuts. Throughout the summer, wood turtles are known to forage in meadows, hayfields, and mature forest, and may travel between 89 and 377 feet to find what they are looking for.
All of these habitat types are critical to the survival of wood turtles. The protection of contiguous, unfragmented habitat that includes each of these features is perhaps the most effective way of promoting the survival of this species.