Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor was among the performers who “raised a little shell” for Ontario’s at-risk native turtle species at a private event hosted by the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre (OTCC) in Peterborough on Thursday evening (September 4).
Billed as an evening for changemakers featuring music, conservation, and education, “Raise a Little Shell” took place at OTCC’s new facility at 2785 Television Road and followed the official opening and open house for the facility two weeks before on August 22.
Ennismore singer-songwriter and fiddler Melissa Payne and Hamilton singer-songwriter and guitarist Terra Lightfoot also entertained the crowd, book-ending presentations on the work of the OTCC and on the state of species at risk protections in the province.
The event was emceed by OTCC volunteer Caolaidhe (pronounced Cailey) Keelor, who helped organize the event over the summer to help raise awareness of the plight of Ontario’s eight native turtle species and the work of the OTCC. That included securing the appearance of the three musicians, including Greg Keelor — a task made easier by the fact the two are married.
Audience members included OTCC executive and medical director Dr. Sue Carstairs, OTCC board vice chair Colin Cassin, Ontario Nature executive director Andrés Jiménez Monge, and siblings and nature lovers Mary and Gerry Young, who donated their family’s 100-acre property to OTCC so it could be protected in perpetuity and used for conservation purposes.
After an introduction to the evening by Caolaidhe and a performance by Payne, OTTC education coordinator Lisa Browning spoke to the audience about the work of OTCC. She first thanked Caolaidhe for her work in organizing the event and the Youngs for donating their family property to the OTCC, which had outgrown the space at its former Chemong Road facility.
Formerly known as the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre, the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre is a non-profit registered charity that takes in and rehabilitates injured turtles from all over Ontario. The only hospital specializing in wild turtles that is accredited by the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, OTCC depends on volunteers, both those who are in the facility and those who bring in the turtles, as well as the veterinarians and vet techs who treat the turtles.
“Through our volunteers and through our staff, we’ve been able to help 1,888 patient turtles so far this year,” Browning said. “Last year, we did reach a record number 2,300, and that’s the most we’ve ever had come in in one year before.”
“We’ll see where the numbers are at by the end this year, but hopefully our increase in numbers every year is because more awareness is being spread and people know what to do when they find an injured turtle.”
With road mortality the greatest threat to turtles after habitat loss, Browning explained how injured turtles come to the OTCC from as far away as Dryden in northern Ontario — a 20-hour drive to Peterborough.
The OTCC has a program of “turtle taxi drivers,” where volunteers sign up to relay the turtles to the hospital with other drivers, with the OTCC coordinating the drivers. Sometimes a turtle will first be transported to a veterinarian or vet clinic to stabilize the turtle before it is transported to the OTCC.
“We’ve even had volunteer pilots fly turtles to us, from some of those farther places, and this is all on their own time,” Browning said. “This has been very useful, and they want an excuse to fly as well, so they get to fly and help a turtle at the same time.”
Browning also spoke about the OTCC’s hatchling program. Turtles admitted to the hospital are often hit by vehicles before they’ve had a chance to lay their eggs, and the OTCC can collect, incubate, and hatch the eggs, and then release the hatchlings back into their mother’s wetlands.
So far this year, the OTCC has had over 9,000 eggs incubating. The eggs hatch in the fall and the OTCC looks after the hatchlings over the winter before releasing them into the wild the following year.
The OTCC is also involved in road mortality mitigation projects to prevent turtles from getting hit by vehicles by working with Animex and Eco-Kare to spread awareness of the importance of eco-passages, which allow turtles and other wildlife to safely travel under a road.
“Education is also key to conservation and our centre has a fine focus on this,” Browning said. “From our teaching hospital to our public education centre that you’re in here, education is what drives conservation forward.”
Browning shared a list of the threats to Ontario’s eight species of freshwater turtles, largely caused by human activity.
One of the biggest threats is habitat loss, including the loss of wetlands to development and road fragmentation (when roads are built through wetlands). As well as being struck by road vehicles, turtles are also injured by boat motor propellers and fishing hooks. Other threats include predation by raccoons, which are prevalent in urban environments, and poaching of turtles for the illegal pet trade.
After her presentation, Browning brought out the OTTC’s “education ambassador,” Andrea the Blanding’s turtle, who has been at the OTTC since 2005 after she was hit by car and her shell, which is made of bone and keratin, was damaged. After treatment at the OTTC, most turtles will recover from shell damage and will be released back into the wild. However, Andrea lost one eye and the other eye was damaged when she was hit by the car so she is blind in both eyes.
“She’s really struggles to find food on her own,” Browning said. “She will not forage for food, and that’s why she’s still with us. We have to hand feed her.”
For turtles like Andrea that cannot be released back into the wild, the OTTC has permits to keep them in the facility so they can help spread awareness by participating in education programs.
“A lot of turtles do go back home again,” Browning said, noting the volunteers help with the releases. “Last year we released 5,000 turtles back home to where they came from. All the adults are going home within a kilometre of where they were found, and all the hatchlings are going back to their mothers’ homes all across Ontario.”
“Every turtle saved really is a big win for their population, because the hatchings have a one per cent chance of survival in the wild, and it can take 15 to 20 years for them to reach maturity and reach an age where they can reproduce. It can take an adult snapping turtle 60 years for one of its babies to replace it in the population.”
Browning also explained how turtles are the “caretakers of our wetlands” by eating sick and dead plants and animals in the water, helping to keep harmful bacteria levels low, and they also help disperse the seeds of native plants as they travel between water and land. Healthy wetlands act as a natural filtration for drinking water, provide natural flood mitigation, and provide natural carbon storage to combat climate change.
Concluding her presentation, Browning said people can help by advocating for turtle road signs and eco-passages in their area, calling the OTCC if they find an injured turtle, volunteer with or support the OTCC or other turtle conservation organizations, and use citizen science apps like iNaturalist to help record any observations about turtle populations.
After Browning’s presentation, Hamilton singer-songwriter and guitarist Terra Lightfoot performed for the attendees. Lightfoot, who is now living in the Haliburton Highlands, is a friend of Caolaidhe, who gave her the nickname “Terra Turtle” because she herself has rescued some turtles, including with the assistance of Leora Berman’s Turtle Guardians organization in Haliburton.
Following Lightfoot’s performance, Ontario Nature’s conservation policy and campaigns director Tony Morris spoke about the state of species at risk protections in Ontario.
Founded in 1931, Ontario Nature is a charitable conservation organization with the mission to protect wild species and wild spaces through conservation education and public engagement.
Representing over 9,000 individual members across the province and with around 130,000 supporters, Ontario Nature also has 115 member groups that make up its nature network and works as a land trust, with 26 nature reserves totalling over 3,000 hectares of land across Ontario.
“I was asked to speak about the state of species at risk and their protections in Ontario, and I feel a little bad because I’m going to bring the mood down, quite considerably unfortunately,” Morris said.
Morris pointed out that there are currently around 270 species that are currently listed at risk under provincial legislation in Ontario, compared to 200 species in 2017.
“This is a pattern that exists around the world,” Morris said. “We’ve kind of entered, as a society, the sixth mass extinction due to habitat loss over exploitation, pollution, and climate change. There’s been a 73 per cent decline in the size of monitored wildlife species around the world. This is based on data from over 5,000 species around the planet.”
He provided a timeline of how species at risk legislation has evolved in the province since the original Endangered Species Act was passed in 1971 by the Ontario government — the first provincial government to do so — to changes made most recently by the Ford government that have significantly weakened protection for species at risk.
Morris focused in particular on Bill 5 – Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act, which was passed in June.
“Bill 5 is absolutely devastating for healthy communities, good planning, species at risk, and the rights of Indigenous people,” Morris explained. “It was passed under the premise that we need to speed up approvals to help our economy and address threats from the south.”
“This bill is probably the most devastating piece of legislation to ever happen in Ontario. Most significantly, it eliminated the Endangered Species Act, replacing it with the far weaker Species Conservation Act.”
He gave an example of how the new legislation defines habitat only as the immediate dwellings of a species, such as its den or nesting site. That means, for a turtle, the only thing that is protected is where it nests and not where it needs to travel to in order to eat.
Morris also noted several other changes that will weaken protection for species at risk, including the discretion of the minister responsible for the legislation replacing the advice of an independent committee of scientists when making decisions about whether a species should be listed and how, the elimination of recovery strategies, and only requiring those who are going to undertake an activity (such as development) that will harm species at risk to register that activity — without requiring them to adhere to any conditions when conducting the activity.
“In short, this is devastating for Ontario’s most vulnerable species,” Morris said. “If you think of an ecosystem like a jenga tower, each piece represents a species in an ecosystem. You start taking away those pieces and eventually that tower collapses.”
Morris shared some of the efforts by Ontario Nature to fight Bill 5 and offered suggestions for people to take action, including contacting provincial and federal politicians.
“Remember, it was people power that got the (provincial) government to reverse course in the Greenbelt,” Morris said, referring to the 2022 decision to restore the 15 areas of land that were redesignated or removed from the Greenbelt for development. “We can do the same thing here.”
Following Morris’ presentation, Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor closed out the evening with a performance accompanied by Lightfoot on guitar and backing vocals and Payne on fiddle and backing vocals.
He performed a number of songs, including the Blue Rodeo tunes “Rose-Coloured Glasses,” “It Hasn’t Hit Me Yet,” and “Lost Together,” Fairport Convention’s “Who Knows Where the Time Goes,” and a new original tune.
After the performance, the OTCC brought out Paddy the snapping turtle. Now 42 years old, Paddy was admitted to the OTCC in 2012. A family had purchased him as a hatchling at a pet store, unaware that it is illegal to keep a native Ontario turtle as a pet. After attending an OTCC outreach event, the family decided to surrender Paddy to the OTCC.
Paddy has remained at the OTCC as he is not a candidate for release back into the wild, due to the fact that his point of origin is unknown and he is completely habituated to humans.
For more information about OTCC, including how to volunteer and donate, visit ontarioturtle.ca. For more information about Ontario Nature, including the campaign to repeal Bill 5, visit ontarionature.org.
