A Super Volunteer day. (20180621) A Special thank you to Gracenote a division of Neilsen

Earlier this year the Turtle Patrol was contacted by Gracenote to see if we would like some volunteer effort. We were happy to have some strong backs and willing hands. So we made arrangements for them to come out on Neilsen's Global Impact day on June 21st. Clarence handled the arrangements and we ended up receiving 10 volunteers. We decided that we would put them to work doing habitat enhancement at our educational site. Clarence headed down early and to see if we were going to have any live turtles to show our guests and was ready to go at 9:30 when everyone arrived. Upon arrival at our primary educational site we were greeted by Grace. She was sniffing around looking for the "right" place to lay her eggs.

Clarence and I split our crew into two groups, and I took my crew to the second pond and we got to work removing destructive vegetation from the nesting area.

There are specific areas where vegetation is of particular concern as the roots will grow right into the eggs laid by the Snappers and make the eggs unviable. Here is a look at how much the guys in the crew were able to clear up.

I was doing trial trimming to ensure the walk into this site was clear and trimmed so patroller's opportunity to encounter ticks were minimized.
Clarence's crew did a similar stellar job at first pond and the place looks great!
Next it was back to my place for lunch and nice cold water that was supplied by AA Munro Insurance. During lunch Clarence and I answered many questions regarding Snapping turtles andwe hope the Gracenote folks got something out of the session.
We then headed out to our second large patrolling area that contains our greatest population of known nesting females. Here is a quick shot of most of the Gracenote crew, some with their AA Munro water bottles ready for their next stroll and education opportunity.

While we spotted no Snappers we were treated to a viewing of a Painted Turtle basking in the sun- what little was available,

So, once again a special thanks to Gracenote volunteers: Craig Sampson, Aaron Landry, Charles Zwicker, Ian Sutherland, Cliff Wheadon, Tom Bilodeau, Scott Rose, Greg Taves, and Ye Liang. We hope you had a great day and learned a little about our Nova Scotia Snappers. I would also be remiss if I didn't thank Alison Conrad from Deloitte, and Jenn Stotland from Halifax Earth, who also came out on the 21st and provided assistance.
As a followup, here is a shot of Grace just before she laid her eggs the very next day.

She is a beauty!
Take some time and put a little wild in your life today!
Turbo