Local Turtle Week Day One

Turtles serve many functions in our ecosystems.

Local Turtle Week

DAY ONE

Posts for Friday, August 27, 2021

The Importance of Turtles

Did you know that Ontario has eight native turtle species? Unfortunately all are now listed as species at risk.

Although turtles have been around since the age of the dinosaurs, they now face an uncertain future.

A world without turtles is very sad to think about.

Have you considered the impacts their loss may have on your environment?

Turtles help to control aquatic vegetation and help to clean creeks and wetlands by eating algae and dead and decaying fish and other organisms.

“Turtles play an important role in our ecosystem and turtles are vital to our wetlands,” said Hope Brock, Healthy Watersheds Technician with Ausable Bayfield Conservation. “We need to preserve and enhance our wetlands and plant native trees and shrubs and protect and grow the natural areas that sustain turtle species.”

As omnivores, turtles eat invertebrates, fish, and plants, and help to keep our aquatic environments in balance.

Eggs and young turtles are often a food source for other species, so turtles are one part of a massive food web.

Many turtles are also scavengers that remove decaying fish from wetlands, which helps maintain water quality!

Local Turtle Week Colouring Contest

Enter our #LocalTurtleWeek colouring contest for a chance to win a draw prize!

We have a turtle prize pack for the winner! The turtle prize pack includes a National Geographic Turtles book.

National Geographic Kids Turtles Book part of prize pack.

Colouring Contest Rules

Here are the simple rules for entering your turtle colouring into our contest to be entered into a draw for a prize:

Visit Stoneridge Art Studios (Matt Patterson)

At that web page, download one of the following colouring pages to colour:

Wood Turtle (JPEG file)
Blanding's Turtle (JPEG file)
Eastern Box Turtle (JPEG file)
Eastern Painted Turtle (JPEG file)

Then, colour the turtle!

Once you have coloured the turtle art, simply post an image of the coloured artwork (as a comment on one of our #LocalTurtleWeek social media posts) to a Huron Stewardship Council or Ausable Bayfield Conservation social media platform (such as Facebook) using the hashtag #LocalTurtleWeek

All submissions must be posted during #LocalTurtleWeek which runs from August 27 to September 2, 2021.

By posting the artwork you are agreeing to our use and sharing of the finished coloured drawing and names and agreeing to sharing and use of names of artists, including minors, for announcement of draw prizes and for other promotion.

Please post the artwork only if you are a parent or guardian legally able to grant this permission.

Thanks for entering the contest!

Blanding's Turtle artwork for colouring

#Local Turtle Week

Local Turtle Week begins today (Friday, August 27, 2021)

Local Turtle Week begins today! (Friday, August 27).

Cristen Watt is Species at Risk Field Coordinator with the Huron Stewardship Council.

In this video for #LocalTurtleWeek she tells us about their work with turtles and the need to preserve and enhance habitat such as wetlands that the turtles need to survive and thrive.

Watch the video now: