State offers landowners money and advice to protect bog turtles

ALBANY — The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is accepting applications for grants that will help private landowners protect bog turtle habitat. The deadline is June 1. This new program provides technical advice and funding to protect at-risk species and their habitats. Protection of the bog turtle’s habitat will also benefit other at-risk species with similar needs, officials said. Applications must involve the management and restoration of bog turtle habitat. Ninety-five percent of bog turtle habitat is on private land. Survival of the species in the wild is impossible without the collaboration of private landowners. Most of Orange County is included in the area known to have the biggest bog turtle populations in the state. The bog turtle (glyptemys muhlenbergii) is New York’s smallest turtle, reaching a maximum length of 4.5 inches at maturity. It has a distinctive bright orange or yellow blotch on both sides of its neck, a dark body color, a domed and somewhat rectangular upper shell with pronounced rings around the shell plates and a hingeless blotched lower shell. Disappearing wetlands threaten this native species This endangered species lives in shallow, spring-fed, open-canopy wetlands such as mineral fens and wet meadows, which are home to other rare species, such as the spotted turtle (clemmys gutatta), and wood turtle (glyptemys insculpta). These wetlands were once numerous throughout the Hudson Valley and Great Lakes Plains regions of the state, and were maintained by beaver damming, grazing by herbivores, and low-intensity agricultural grazing. The decline of agriculture in the Northeast and the shift towards row crops over the last 100 years has precipitated the loss of open-canopy wetlands. Over the last 30 years, bog turtles have disappeared from more than half the wetlands they once occupied. Without the disturbance provided by fire and grazing animals, these wetlands become quickly colonized and overgrown with pioneer forest species, such as red maple and poplar. Habitat degradation has been made worse by development; infestation by invasive species such as phragmites, purple loosestrife, multiflora rose, and Japanese knotweed; agricultural runoff; and the building of roads that block animal movement and disrupt wetland hydrology. Orange County has important habitat Recovery efforts for the bog turtle are guided by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s Bog Turtle Northern Population Recovery Plan, which divides the northern population of the bog turtle into five distinct recovery units. Two of these, the Prairie Peninsula/Lake Plain unit and the Hudson/Housatonic unit, are partly located in the state. The Hudson/Housatonic unit, which includes most of Orange County, is the most important, and includes 33 of 37 of the largest bog turtle populations in New York. The state conservation department will limit eligibility to this focus area, selected by bog turtle experts based on the history of recent occurrences, the need for protection and management of habitat, and natural features such as mountain ridges that limit the turtle’s movement. Columbia, Greene, Ulster, Dutchess, Putnam, and Sullivan counties are also part of the Hudson/Housatonic unit. Eligibility To be eligible to apply for funding, applicants must be private landowners or a non-governmental group proposing to do work on privately owned land. Any applicant who is not the landowner must submit original signed letters of permission from all private property owners involved at the time of application. For more information or to download an application, visit www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/48707.html.