Recovery Plan:
The revision of the
Blanding's Turtle Recovery Plan was completed January 2003. The Plan
has been submitted to the necessary jurisdictions for review, however for
the time being it will be used by the Recovery Team to direct recovery
actions now but will be modified as necessary after it has been reviewed.
This document is available here as a PDF file.
2003 Blanding's
Turtle Recovery Plan (1.1 MB)
Communication Action Plan
A Communication Action Plan for the Recovery of Blanding's turtle was completed
in December 2003 and will be used by the Blanding's Turtle Recovery Team
to guide recovery actions. This document is available here as a PDF
file.
Communication Action Plan for the Recovery of Blanding's Turtle (900
kb)
Recovery
Team
The Blanding's Turtle Recovery Team is responsible for organizing, planning,
implementing and evaluating activities that contribute to the recovery and
conservation of Blanding's turtle in Nova Scotia. Its members
come from a diverse array of backgrounds and willingly contribute their
time and energy to the task.
There are three known populations of Blanding’s turtle in Nova Scotia: one in Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site (KNP), one in a combined provincially and privately protected area complex at McGowan Lake (ML), and one in a working landscape dominated by small private landholdings around Pleasant River (PR).
This diversity presents an array of conservation and management opportunities. Thanks to good science and stewardship, most turtle habitat in KNP and ML is effectively protected from direct human disturbance. Activities over the past three years around the rural community of PR have incorporated research, public education and outreach, allowing science and stewardship to converge
In order to teach people about the turtle we first have to learn about it. This is where science comes in. Providing education for the people often leads to supportive stewardship action from the people. Therefore, science informs researchers, who in turn inform the public, who in turn help the turtles and the places they live, which in turn affects the science and management decisions researchers make!
Public
Education and Stewardship in Action
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Industry
and Government collaborate to protect habitat at McGowan Lake:
Since 1997, the Recovery Team had identified dense seasonal aggregations
of Blanding’s turtles at McGowan Lake, in both summer and winter, on and
adjacent to Bowater and Provincial Crown lands. Such aggregative behavior
makes turtles vulnerable to human and natural disturbances.