The waters have finally receded at our Nyberg Wetland Preserve to allow Megan Garvey, TWC Urban Land Steward and volunteers to start working on our Western Pond turtle habitat enhancement…
The western pond turtle is a small to medium-sized turtle found only on the west coast of the United States of America and Mexico, ranging from western Washington State to northern Baja California. While turtles have persisted for hundreds of millions of years from the time of the dinosaurs, they are now facing a modern extinction crisis worldwide, with half of all turtle species at risk of disappearing.
Adult turtles can live up to 70 years. They nest on land and feed, breed and bask in water. They prefer streams, ponds, lakes and permanent wetlands. They favor habitats with large numbers of emergent logs or boulders where they aggregate to bask. In addition to basking areas, turtles are in search of open spaces to warm up their bodies to then lay their eggs.
Last spring TWC, with the help of volunteers, installed several turtle nesting and basking sites at Nyberg Wetland. The preserve was chosen for its distance above the water line, so when the water rises with the fall rains, the eggs are not submerged. Western Pond Turtle eggs take 3 to 4 months to incubate. When the baby turtles hatch they will make their way down to the wetland. We are using information about known western pond turtle sites and the habitat types in the Portland Metropolitan area to update management goals and activities at our Nyberg Wetland Preserve in Tualatin Oregon.
Twenty-one artist in five locations gathered for the first weekend in May, to kick-off American Wetlands Month, with Rock…Paper…Turtle…Art for Wetlands
Rock…Paper…Turtle…Art for Wetlands idea began in November 2016, when Jan Rimerman and Dave Haslett began working on their 2017 exhibition schedule. Jan, a mixed media painter, and Dave, a stone sculptor, planned a show in their studio in West Linn in May. Little did they know that this show would change their lives as well as that of our local Western Pond Turtles. A simple 2017 open studio morphed into a private cocktail party reception, a silent auction, a three day open studio, and a happy hour. At the conclusion of the weekend several hundred people had attended and became aware of the Western Pond Turtle and habitat.
The waters have finally receded at our Nyberg Wetland Preserve to allow Megan Garvey, TWC Urban Land Steward and volunteers to start working on our Western Pond turtle habitat enhancement…
After nearly a year and half of removing reed canary grass our Nyberg wetland finally has some open space! Reed canary grass, an invasive species, can grow six feet tall…