Our final road mortality survey for the season occurred on October 24th. We completed weekly surveys from May through September 24th, and two additional surveys in October for a total of 24 surveys at the road mortality hotspot in Fairfield County. I'd like to thank everyone who donated to our crowdfunding campaign or helped us get the word out; this work would not have been possible otherwise. The fact that we were able to raise $680 (plus a $200 cash donation) is a big accomplishment, despite falling short of the financial goal for which I was aiming. At the end of August, I took a full-time job out of necessity, and my time for this project became much more limited. Donations were not enough to make this project a full-time job as I had originally hoped, but that doesn't mean I've given up; there is much work to be done.
No hatchling turtles were observed this season, and although we know there are a substantial number of terrapins nesting at the Fairfield County hotspot, we don't know the demographics or recruitment rate of the population. In other words, we don't know how many baby turtles are surviving and becoming breeding adults, and therefore we do not know if the population is stable, increasing, or declining. Thanks to this project and our documentation of over 100 depredated turtle nests, we do know that nest predation here is extremely prevalent. We found no successfully hatched nests, hatchlings, or even juvenile terrapins this season, which is concerning.
We also gained valuable insight regarding the litter problem along this road. Littering is likely occurring here multiple times per day, and is accumulating faster than we had thought. After thoroughly cleaning up one section of the road, we would observe new litter there the following week. In one instance, a driver scattered trash all over the road as I was cleaning up. I'm unsure whether this was intentional malevolence or coincidence. On the other hand, there were multiple occasions when we were thanked for cleanup up litter by people passing by.
Although CT DOT has intermittently scheduled cleanups for this stretch of road, we learned that these cleanups are not thorough or frequent enough to keep litter under control. In addition, DOT actually may be exacerbating the littering issue to some extent by mowing litter-ridden vegetation. We observed large quantities of plastic and other litter that were shredded by DOT mowers and subsequently blowing into the saltmarsh. I hope that my correspondence with the DOT manager who oversees operations along this road will result in increased litter removal efforts here. Regardless of that, we were able to remove several bags of litter, and collect a substantial amount of data describing the types and quantities of litter found.
In the coming months, I'm planning to summarize data and create reports, regarding both wildlife road mortality and litter. I'll also be continuing my correspondence and information sharing with CT DOT, CT DEEP, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and other agencies and organizations that may be able to help improve the littering and road mortality issues at this location. I'm also hoping to draft another campaign to fund fieldwork for next season.
Thank you for reading this post and for your interest in this project. Also, thanks again to everyone who contributed. The donations, social media shares & follows, and support were essential and will continue to be!
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