Turtle Calendars Raise Funds for Tunnels

Each year (well. this is only our second year) the Turtle Guardians team under the artistic leadership of Jaime Kearnan, puts together our annual calendar. Jaime builds sets and costumes for the turtles and then goes to work designing scenes for each month of the year. It is an involved and creative process for sure! These calendars are coveted by all the kids that have attended Turtle Camp or watched Turtles at Two on our Facebook channels, or who have volunteered with us to babysit nesting turtles, monitor wetlands, or with their parents, conduct research on adopted sections of roads. The Turtle Guardian calendar is a collectible- full of fun photos and educational facts about turtles too! Sales from the calendar go directly to support our turtle threat mitigation program: turtles take up to 60 years to replace themselves, and losses of adults and habitats can result in local extinctions in short order. Beyond nest predation, road injury or mortality are the largest threats in Ontario. But there are so many to counter; the pet-trade, fishing bycatch or fishing accidents are also leading causes of turtle losses in Ontario. Now too, the protection for our wetlands has been significantly diminished and turtle populations are at further risk of disappearing in our lifetime. The sales of the Turtle Guardians calendar help support our strategic work to maintain populations: We install turtle tunnels and specialized fencing- The Turtle Guardians program of The Land Between has targeted potential underpass sites (areas were turtles cross the road and where we can direct them under the road through culverts) and mitigation areas (areas where we can install fencing with jump outs, signage and other solutions)- and in 2021 we will begin installing the first prototypes of affordable turtle directive fencing and are working with local road departments for solutions in areas without culverts. We create curricula for schools and train kids. adults, and communities to help turtles and in 2020 we recruited 300 new Guardian volunteers! We help turtle populations succeed by excavating nests and incubating turtles eggs (under a special permit) and releasing hatchlings back to their nest locations. These nests would otherwise be compromised from construction or road traffic. And we work with landowners to create stewardship plans for their properties including wetlands. In 2021 we will be working with municipalities to advance conservation too!