Land trust gets $30,000 for at-risk reptile survey

A federal grant will be helping the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust protect some of the county’s at-risk reptiles.

The trust learned in late May that it was approved for a grant of more than $30,000 from Environment Canada’s Habitat Stewardship Program for Species at Risk.

It will be using the money to conduct a series of field surveys to better understand where the county’s nine species-at-risk reptiles live and procreate.

Those species are the milk snake, eastern hog-nosed snake, eastern ribbon snake, five-lined skink, wood turtle, spotted turtle, stinkpot turtle, Blanding’s turtle and snapping turtle. “Haliburton County is incredibly rich in its diversity and we want to protect that and we want to learn more about it,” said trust chair Sheila Ziman. “The more we know, the better it is.”

Biologist Paul Heaven will be helping the trust to know more as he conducts field surveys throughout the county.

“We’re trying to flag some of the wetlands that might be important,” Heaven told the Times.

These kinds of studies haven’t been carried out to any great extent in the county before. Heaven said that community mobilization would be a huge part of making the effort a success and is asking that any residents who see any members of the nine species, alive or dead, to call him at 286-3181 or email pheaven@glenside-eco.ca.

Heaven said GPS co-ordinates and photographs of the animal(s) are also important. With part of the grant money, the trust will be hosting a series of public workshops in conjunction with environmental organization The Land Between.

The workshops will show people how to identify species at risk and what they should do if they encounter members of these species. For example, there are certain methods of moving turtles off roadways. Five workshops will take place throughout June, July and August in Haliburton, Minden, Gooderham and Wilberforce. The data collected from the field studies will be used by the land trust and also shared with the Ministry of Natural Resources as well as Environment Canada. Ziman and Heaven both stressed that the trust never sends people onto private property without the permission of the landowner.

The province defines “species at risk” as any plant or animal that is in danger of becoming extinct or disappearing from a geographical area.