Western Painted Turtle recovery in Lower Mainland watersheds
This project will support B.C.’s only remaining native freshwater turtle – the endangered and Red-listed Pacific Coast population of Western Painted Turtles. There are only 18 known sites where this turtle exists in the Lower Fraser Valley. Ten turtle sites are in the Coquitlam, Alouette, and Stave watersheds. This project’s goal is to recover these populations by releasing head-started turtles, monitoring recruitment, and providing and monitoring effectiveness of habitat for basking and nesting. Western Painted Turtles may be found in most types of standing water at low elevations, but also require upland terrestrial habitat for nesting and dispersal.
Update: 65 western painted turtles released
Sixty-five at-risk turtles were released at nesting sites in 2019 in the Lower Mainland by the South Coast Western Painted Turtle Recovery Group, with funding from the FWCP, as part of the recovery plan for the Pacific Coast population. The project also documented a record number of 53 turtle nests, with one-third of those nests occupied by young females laying eggs for the first time.
This population of western painted turtles is federally Endangered and provincially Red-listed. There are only 18 occupied sites and two breeding sites in the lower Fraser Valley. The juvenile turtles were released into the Alouette, Coquitlam-Buntzen, and Stave watersheds, where more than half of the known occupied sites are located.
The project’s goal is to recover turtle populations by increasing survival through rearing and releasing “head-started” turtles. Eggs are collected—at night during the nesting season between May and July—and then incubated. The hatchlings are reared until they reach 30 grams and then released between June and September the following year.
Final report: executive summary (extract)
The goal of this project is to recover 10 populations of British Columbia’s only remaining native freshwater turtle species; the Pacific Coast population of Western Painted Turtle (WPT) that is federally endangered and provincially red-listed, in Lower Mainland Watersheds. This will be accomplished by increasing the recruitment through releasing head-started turtles (while maintaining the genetic distinctiveness of BC), monitoring the populations’ recovery, and providing and monitoring effectiveness of essential habitat such as basking features, overwintering and nesting habitat (as per the recovery plans recommendations).
This project is led by WPT South Coast Recovery Group; a partnership between the Coastal Painted Turtle Project (CPTP) (lead by Aimee Mitchell), Wildlife Preservation Canada (WPC) (lead by Andrea Gielens who operates head-starting at theVancouver Zoo) and the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations and Regional Development (MFLNRORD) (lead by Kym Welstead Provincial WPT Recovery Team chair and operator of the head-stating facility in North Vancouver).
The CPTP has already begun to address immediate threats that may result in direct mortality through measures such as nests predator exclosures, signage, site rehabilitation, and fencing as well as restoring habitat and long-term productivity at the currently known occupied sites in these watersheds (Coquitlam, Alouette and Stave). Much of this work was also previously sponsored by FWCP in various multi-species at risk projects in all three watersheds since 2011. However, follow-up monitoring through population assessments (mark-recapture and surveys) have had limited funding from other project supporters. Assessing the functioning of past and planned restoration activities as well as survival and health of headstarted individuals is essential in order to effectively apply adaptive management and ensure long-term success of the recovery efforts.
The project objectives are to support and conduct all Western Painted Turtle conservation and recovery activities highlighted in the Provincial Recovery Plan and Federal Recovery Strategy in the Coquitlam, Alouette and Stave watersheds with a focus on currently occupied and augmented sites. This proposed project with FWCP will further address the threats by securing long-term matched funding for the head-starting program as well as for post-release and post-restoration monitoring. Activities include: Head-starting support (staff, food and equipment) both at the Vancouver Zoo (Andrea Gielens) and at MFLNRORD facility in North Vancouver (Kym Welstead). The field component includes; nesting monitoring, habitat restoration, nesting beach maintenance and population monitoring (trapping) to track success of head-started turtles that are released as well as tracking overall population health. In summary, the main objective is to restore, maintain and monitor turtle populations and survival habitat throughout these three Lower Mainland FWCP watersheds. This project is envisioned as a 5-year program, with focus on currently occupied and augmented sites in the watersheds to restore, maintain and monitor Western Painted Turtle populations.
This report contains sensitive information. If you need access to the report, please submit a request to the Ministry of Environment as outlined in the report link.