12 year old recognized for helping turtles

By Nick Moase

THE ADVANCE

NovaNewsNow.com

In recognition for the hours put into the Blanding Turtle recovery project, 12 year-old Carter Feltham named one of the turtles released into the wild at the turtle release ceremony at Kejimkujik National Park on July 3.

The Pleasant River resident first started working with the Blanding Turtle when she met Brennan Caverhill. Caverhill was staying with Feltham’s grandmother, Winnie Allen, while looking for a more permanent place to stay. Caverhill told her about his work and that he was here trying to help increase the population of Blanding Turtles.

“I took Carter out nesting, trapping and radio-tracking with me a few times that first summer (in 2003), to introduce her to the turtles and show her what I did,” said Caverhill.

Feltham said Caverhill had trouble finding Ella’s (a Blanding Turtle) nest when out looking one time.

“He was digging way to close to the bridge,” said Feltham. She suggested backing up from the bridge, and they found Ella’s nest.

That was five years ago. Since then she has continued volunteering her time, which she figures is about 150 hours a year.

“As she got older she wanted to keep helping, and now she's quite an expert - she does her own nesting surveys, hatching monitoring and turtle live-trapping,” said Caverhill.

Each year she waits for Ella to nest, usually somewhere near the railway tracks in her Grandfather’s property.

“When we find Ella digging a hole, we watch her lay her eggs and wait for her to leave, we put a cage on in (Four rocks over wire mesh),” she said. “We watch it everyday to make sure nothing has disturbed it”

About a month or two later the eggs hatch. She contacts Caverhill, who comes down to mark them, fill out paperwork and then release them into the wild.

In recognition for her work with the turtles and other animals she named one of the turtles released in Kejimkujik. She named it Kryslie, after her two best friends Krystal and Haley.

“I wanted to show them that we would be friends forever, so I put their two names together” she explained.

She plans to continue her work with the turtles as well as other at risk species in Kejimkujik.

Someday she hopes to work with Haley and Krystal looking after pets or become a biologist helping animals.

Next year she will be going into Grade 7 at North Queens Rural High School.