Turtle events

May

• 7: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Regional Office Fishing Day; Jen Lapis (413-253-8303)

• 26: Turtle Time at Audubon Greenwich in Connecticut; call 203-869-5272 or go to this website to learn more: DEP Continues 2011 Year of the Turtle Activities

• 27: State of Massachusetts annual release of headstarted northern red-bellied cooters; Marion Larson (Marion.Larson@state.ma.us)

June

• 11: Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge Fishing Day; Susan Russo (978-443-4661)

• 26: State of Connecticut Year of the Turtle Day; More information to come, but see the website

August

• 17, 18: Northeast PARC annual meeting in Maryland; See the website for more

• Ongoing

  • For events in Massachusetts, visit their Year of the Turtle website.

  • Find events at your local refuge.

  • Check out Turtle Talk at The Children's Museum in West Hartford, Conn., every Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon. Visit The Children's Museum website to learn more.

  • Send us your turtle events!

Be a Citizen Scientist!

Citizen science programs allow people to partner with organizations and scientists to collect important biological data. PARC and the Service have collected some of those programs below.

• Connecticut Turtle Atlas
• Lake George, N.Y., Turtle Monitoring Program: Lake George Association, Inc., 518-668-3558
• Massachusetts Turtle Atlas
• Massachusetts Blanding's turtle research: Bryan Windmiller, bwindmiller@gmail.com
• Massachusetts, Linking Landscapes: Tim Dexter, MassDOT, timothy.dexter@state.ma.us; Mike Jones, USGS, mtjones@bio.umass.edu
• New Hampshire Fish and Game, Reptile and Amphibian Reporting Program
• Vermont Reptile and Amphibian Atlas Project
• Virginia Institute of Marine Science Sea Turtle Stranding Program
• Northeast PARC Working Groups:
  • Box Turtle
  • Emerging Diseases
  • Priority Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Areas
  • Land Use Guidelines
  • Landscape Conservation Cooperative
  • Roads
  • Road Salt
  • State Wildlife Action Plans
  • Vernal Pools
  • Wood Turtle
• USA Turtle Mapping Project
• International Sea Turtle Observation Registry

Are you involved with a turtle citizen science program? Please send information on your citizen science programs to yearoftheturtle2011@gmail.com and Meagan_racey@fws.gov.

Find your nature

Volunteer opportunities near you

• National Wildlife Refuges
• Audubon
• Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection
• Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife
• Maine Wildlife Parks
• Maryland Department of Natural Resources
• Massachusetts Riverways Program
• National Marine Life Center, Massachusetts
• New England Aquarium, Massachusetts
• New Hampshire Fish and Game
• New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife
• New York Department of Environmental Conservation
• Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
• Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management
• Vermont Fish and Wildlife
• Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center
• Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries
• West Virginia Department of Natural Resources

The National Marine Life Center, Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and partners release the turtles from the 2010 headstart program Credit: National Marine Life Center

Bristol County Agricultural School sophomores partnered with species experts to raise Blanding's turtles and released them in late spring into wetland habitat. Credit: Keith Shannon/USFWS

A group of biologists discuss their efforts to survey bog turtles in this habitat. Credit: Gary Peeples/USFWS