03/22/2009: "Have You Seen A Clemmys Marmorata?"

(L to R: photos by Chris Brown & Willaim Flaxinton)

Have you seen a turtle on your land, or in a pond? If so, and if you believe it looked like the photos above, then you may be the first person in San Juan County to have discovered the Western Pond turtle ((Clemmys marmorata) in our county.

There have been sightings in the county -including one possible sighting on San Juan, but so far there has been no confirmed identifications.

So who cares? The Feds, the State and the County do, because the little guy -7.5 inches long- is listed as a Federal Species of Concern, and is also on the state Endanger list, so if in fact it exists here, all three agencies would like to know about it.

A little background. According to the Pacific Biodiversity Institute (PBI) ”the Western Pond Turtle is one of only two native Washington turtle species.

Although large populations of Clemmys marmorata are found in northern California, the species has been extirpated from British Columbia and is near extinction in Washington State (Bury, 1986).” As for it’s current status, the turtle “is found at only three remaining sites in Washington State. All three sites are in the Columbian Gorge and one site is due to a reintroduction project begun in 1999. There are between 150 - 200 turtles at each site.”

If the turtle is found in San Juan County, the State will most likely include the county in the recovery project.

After the county sent out a press release requesting information on any sightings, more that one person wondered if letting anyone at the County know they had a State Endangered turtle on the property was a good thing to do; or was it just asking to have the County descend on the property and start making demands on what one could or could not do on, and to, their property.

Fair question. Shireene Hale at the San Juan County Community Development and Planning Department (CDPD) said the protection standards of the Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) are, and will be, the same, even if a turtle is present. The CAO is currently being updated by Hale and a citizen advisory team, and while the regulations pertain to areas that are currently defined as requiring protection, it is not clear what it could mean if suddenly an endangered animal is found to exist outside of the defined areas.

Hale does not seemed concerned that a property would be further impacted if they had a pond turtle on their property, and gives as an example that Salmon are on the Endangered list, and yet we are still allowed to catch and eat them….go figure.

If you see one, and can get a photo of it, Hale (and the Island Guardian) would love to receive it. Hale can be reached at shireeneh@sanjuanco.com , and the Island Guardian can be reached at editor@islandguardian.com

To find out more about the turtle and how you can help, click HERE