Kids for Turtles
It all started in May 2006, when twelve-year-old Sydney
Tanzola grew alarmed by the dead turtles she found on
her street and other roadways around Washago, Ontario.
Tanzola understood that turtles had become increasingly
vulnerable to local extinction once people started fragmenting
their habitat with roads. The youngster wrote
a concerned letter to local naturalist Bob Bowles, who
jumped at the opportunity to form Kids for Turtles (KfT),
a group dedicated to promoting awareness of wildlife
habitats through environmental education. Officially
incorporated in 2007, KfT joined Ontario Nature as a
member group the following year.
KfT is not just for kids – it has more than 150 members,
ranging in age from two to 72 – but its name recognizes that
children are tomorrow’s conservation leaders. Turtles,
like so many other species, must now rely on people to
restore a formerly healthy population. KfT is intent on
raising awareness about the importance of habitat conservation
not only for turtles but for all wildlife.
To date, KfT has put up 57 turtle-crossing signs along
roads and near wetlands in Simcoe County, and Bowles
believes that vehicle-related turtle mortality has declined
as a result. In 2007, KfT planted 6,000 tree seedlings as part
of a habitat restoration project, in conjunction with Eco
Medic Ecosystem Restoration Services and Twin Lakes
Conservation Club. KfT members are ubiquitous at trail
cleanup events and butterfly workshops in the Orillia area.
KfT also promotes awareness about keeping turtles
as pets, a long-term and expensive commitment that many
owners come to regret. Because keeping any of Ontario’s
eight turtle species as a pet is illegal, stores sell red-eared
sliders, which are native to the United States. This species
of turtle can grow to the size of a dinner plate and needs a
190-litre aquarium for the majority of its 30-year lifespan.
And, as members operating KfT booths at fairs and outdoor
events across the province will tell you, since red-ears are
not native to Ontario, they should not be released into the
wild if they outgrow their owners.
In 2009, KfT will expand its presence at festivals and
education forums and join the campaign to clean up Lake
Simcoe. KfT’s growing membership is also certain to
retain its vital role as guardians of one of Ontario’s oldest
reptile species.
Summer Fun
In June, KfT hosted the first annual Mariposa Butterfly
Festival in Orillia. The name of the event (mariposa
is Spanish for “butterfly”) is a tribute to the Mexican wintering
grounds of Ontario’s butterflies and a nod to the event’s
sponsor, Mariposa Homes. Despite poor weather, the
festival attracted more than 1,000 participants and a number
of vendors selling butterfly-related crafts, clothing
and books. KfT members staffed butterfly displays and led
expeditions to local butterfly habitats in the Orillia area.In preparation for the festival, KfT members and volunteers
planted five butterfly gardens around Orillia.
The gardens are stocked with the all-important milkweed
plant on which monarch butterflies – a species of special
concern nationally – lay their eggs. The ambitious goal of
the festival and KfT’s butterfly initiatives is to restore the
monarch population in urban areas by planting butterfly
gardens in every backyard in Orillia.
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