Approved as Amended: 8/11/98
MISSION
The William Belzer Box Turtle Conservation Trust (herinafter referred to as the “TCT”) will be devoted first and foremost to the vigorous continuation, in perpetuity, of the seminal Eastern Box Turtle repatriation project initiated by William R. Belzer in 1993 at the McKeever Environmental Learning Center in Sandy Lake, Mercer County Pennsylvania.
The primary mission of the TCT is to enhance turtle conservation, native population recruitment and repatriation, in order to improve (through non-lethal and primarily field practices and studies) the declining prospects of turtle species, particularly of the Eastern Box turtle (Terrapene Carolina) in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
PURPOSE
Background: Habitat fragmentation, pet collection and injury or disease from other human activities, are fueling the decline/disappearance of the Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina) in much of its native range. More than 120 nations signed an agreement in 1994 to add all Box Turtle (Terrapene) species to the appended protection provided by CITES (Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species). The international intent to conserve this species can not be realized without basic, local, domestic conservation efforts. Field work in the late 1980’s by Robert P. Cook at the Floyd Bennet Field of Gateway National Recreation Area demonstrated that recovery of this species is very difficult. In an effort to further test, develop and demonstrate repatriation strategies for this species, William R. Belzer initiated an interminable repatriation project at the McKeever Environmental Center at Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania in 1993. By 1998, the seminal field work at the McKeever site revealed that 200 acres is too small a habitat. (Belzer, B. 1999. Home range establishment by translocated eastern box turtles. Box Turtle Research and Conservation Newsletter 8:3-7 and 20-22.) Work then shifted in 1999 to a much larger, private, restricted-access nature sanctuary. Access for extended field study at that site had begun, by 2008, to reveal important fundamental insights into the obstacles that confront hope for slowing and reversing the decline of box turtle populations. (Belzer,W., & S. Seibert. 2007. Long term movement histories for headstarted juvenile, and translocated adult and juvenile Eastern Box Turtles in NW PA sanctuaries. ) http://www.boxturtlesintrouble.org/abstracts.html
The purpose and program priorities of the TCT are:
- To ensure in perpetuity the continuation of the Eastern Box turtle repatriation studies that were initiated at the McKeever Learning Center’s (Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania) natural preserve. Income, and when necessary, principal from the TCT will be used:
- For the long term care and protective monitoring of repatriated homeless Eastern Box Turtles, field study sites involved in these studies, to avoid their death during the early years of relocation:
- For the use of radio telemetry to enable regular monitoring that will ensure the safety and health of individual turtles;
- for interventions to improve mating opportunities, nesting and feeding habitat, and nest, hatchling and hibernaculum protection and
- To assure that native turtles are not taken from other natural, viable habitats for any studies supported by this Trust Fund.