In May, the Mid-Atlantic Center for Herpetology and Conservation (MACHAC) conducted bog turtle surveys at two of French & Pickering’s voluntary conservation easements in northern Chester County. These surveys are part of a long-term management plan that includes surveys every 5 years to track population health.
The bog turtle (Glyptemys muhlenbergii) is North America’s smallest turtle. Their dark brown carapace reaches only 4 inches in length at maturity. These turtles live in isolated populations in open, unpolluted wetlands with mucky soils and high groundwater. These habitat specialists require areas of low vegetation, like tussock sedge, for nesting and forested wetlands where they hibernate in the submerged roots of trees.
Historically, bog turtles could easily move between patchwork habitats as landscapes were altered. These changes in vegetation, or natural succession, reduced sun exposure for nesting and disturbances from beaver, elk, and wildfires reopened tree canopies. Unfortunately, due to increased development, draining of wetlands for agriculture, fragmentation by roads, and suppression of natural disturbances, bog turtle habitat has been reduced. As a result, populations have drastically declined over the past 100 years. Pennsylvania listed the bog turtle as a state endangered species in 1974, and they were federally listed as threatened in 1997.
Working with conservation easement landowners, French & Pickering continues to protect sensitive habitats from development and manage vegetation to maintain a mosaic of habitats these turtles require to thrive.
