Threatened turtles turn up during study of Ont. lake

A healthy population of threatened turtles has been found in an eastern Ontario lake as a result of a study partly funded by local cottagers.

"That's great news," said Paula Norlock, a biologist with Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources after capturing some stinkpot turtles in Lower Beverley Lake last week. "And hopefully, you know, whatever we can find with a healthy population, we can spread to some populations that aren't doing so well."

Norlock and her colleagues were sampling plants and animals in the lake as part of the Gananoque River Watershed Project, a multi-year project focusing on Lower Beverley Lake this year that will also be looking at 17 other lakes in the watershed.

More than half the funding for the study, which will cost a projected $139,000 in 2008, is covered by private donations from more than a dozen local groups, including the Lower Beverley Lake Association, which represents the owners of 450 cottages around Lower Beverley Lake.

The remaining $57,000 is being covered by a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Species at Risk Fund, said the Algonquin to Adirondacks Conservation Association, which is managing the study.

Jenny Aitken, one of the project co-ordinators, said the cottagers have shown a keen interest in the study, and many want to share with her their own initiatives to protect the lake, such as setting up buffer zones between the lake and their property or avoiding the use of fertilizers that could wash into the lake and affect its ecosystems.

Info for management plan

The information from the study will be used by the cottagers to come up with their own lake management plan.

Lily Faust, president of the Lower Beverley Lake Association, said residents want to know what impact they are having on the lake.

"We have people that have been coming up to this lake ever since they were born — I mean their parents and grandparents came up here — so they have such loyalty to this lake and really care about it."

So far, the study has found the lake is a home to a handful of species that are considered threatened with extinction in Canada, including the stinkpot turtle, a small, green reptile that rarely leaves the water and releases a foul odour when disturbed. Other species of special concern that have been found by the study include map turtles, grass pickerel and pugnose minnows.

Ministry biologists capture the creatures in nets, weigh and measure them, and in some cases, scrape off scale samples before throwing them back in the water.

The study is also looking at plants in the area, and has found patches of invasive plants such as Eurasian millfoil and purple loosestrife.

This leg of the study will wrap up at the end of this month.