Glen Hartle, LJI Reporter

Why did the turtle cross the road? Because it had to. And that’s a problem.
Road mortality isn’t just an issue for the Sûreté du Québec and the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec. It is also an issue for a raft of organizations representing Mother Nature and they have mobilized in support of their mandate.
An Outaouais environmental organization, the Conseil régional de l’environnement et du développement durable de l’Outaouais (CREDDO), has stepped up and undertaken a four-year project working to mitigate road mortality amongst the turtle populations of the region.
The initiative hopes to protect all turtles, but of particular concern are two species currently on the provincial, national and global endangered species lists: the Blanding’s turtle and the wood turtle. A third species, the northern map turtle, is additionally targeted by the project due to regional and national concerns.
The overall objective of the project, as articulated at its official launch in Sept. 2023, is to reduce the extent of road mortality of turtles in the Outaouais region by prioritizing actions targeting Blanding’s, wood and northern map turtle populations.
More specifically, the goal is to confirm the hotspots of turtle road mortality suggested by available mortality data.
Cénédra Poulin, the activity lead for CREDDO, indicates that while the project officially launched in the summer of 2023, the first phase is about to get under way.
“I think it’s going well so far. We had all the subsidies we asked for and we have a lot of volunteers interested in helping,” Poulin said.
During this initial phase, forecast to last from the middle of May to the middle of July, the project aims to confirm certain road mortality hotspots in the Outaouais through volunteer citizen mortality monitoring in several sectors of the region.
In the Pontiac, the initiative will be specifically focused on busy roadways in the municipalities of Bristol, Clarendon, and Shawville.
“We are searching for people that could spend a few hours per week between mid-May and mid-July, to survey always the same part of a road on a turtle watch,” Poulin said.
Areas of high mortality risk will also be identified, including locations where live turtles are spotted near roads.
“The MRC has a direct role in turtle protection,” said Kari Richardson, MRC Pontiac’s environmental coordinator and its representative for the project. She encouraged residents to report turtle sightings on the Nature Conservancy of Canada portal (https://carapace.ca).
“Once we know exactly where the hot spots are across the Pontiac, we can target awareness efforts, signage and perhaps even fencing, if it is required.”
Subsequent phases of the project will aim to implement measures to reduce road mortality at sites identified as hotspots during the first phase. These mitigation measures will include signage, fencing and wildlife crossings.
Partnering with CREDDO are the Outaouais’ four MRCs (Collines-de-l’Outaouais, Papineau, Pontiac and Vallée-de-la-Gatineau), la Fondation de la Faune du Québec, Nature Conservancy Canada, the National Capital Commission, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg, the provincial and federal ministries of environment, and le Groupe de rétablissement des tortues du Québec.
From local to global
Locally, the conversation around conservation is ongoing, and turtles have been on the radar before. Regional art association artPontiac hosted a special “Call of the Turtle” exhibit in 2022 drawing attention to their plight and invited several experts from various organizations, including the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), to speak at the grand opening.
Provincially, Quebec’s environment ministry indicates that the Blanding’s turtle is considered threatened, meaning that it could disappear in short order. The wood turtle and northern map turtle are considered vulnerable, meaning that survival is considered precarious in the long-term.
At the national level, the Committee on the Status on Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) lists the Blanding’s turtle as endangered, meaning it is facing imminent extirpation (regional extinction) or global extinction. The wood turtle is listed as threatened, meaning that it is likely to become endangered if nothing is done to reverse the factors leading to its extirpation or extinction. The northern map turtle is listed as being of special concern, meaning that it is particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events.
At the global level, the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List (IUCN Red List) lists both the Blanding’s turtle and the wood turtle as endangered. This list of threatened species has evolved to become the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species and is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity. It is not an honour to appear on the list, rather, it is a call for action.
No matter how you read the above categorizations and classifications, the turtles are in danger, and CREDDO is hoping to change that reality by working with various stakeholders on environmental issues in mounting this conservation effort.
If you would like to be a part of the turtle project, contact cenedra.poulin@creddo.ca or k.richardson@mrcpontiac.qc.ca. Information and social media links can be found at: https://creddo.ca.