It’s beginning to sound like a broken record; another species in trouble. The subject animal this week is not one of the most visible or dynamic, yet the wood turtle’s problems are much to blame on human influences.

As a youngster our family had a summer picnic outing nearly every Sunday after church services. The picnic area was in Franklin Township. We invariably saw either black rat snakes, box turtles, and probably due to the proximity to Bull Run, quite a few wood turtles. Wood turtles are semiaquatic and spend more of their lives in or close to streams.

Dad and I would always “get away” for a half hour or so on my little nature learning hikes. We regularly crossed paths with one or all three of the above. So as a youngster, my assumption was they were rather common inhabitants.

I still find quite a few box turtles today, but hardly any rat snakes and unfortunately few wood turtles. Apparently, parking lots, driveways, housing developments and strip malls may be the chief problems for this reptile.

The bottom line, now about 60 years later, where have they gone? More vehicular traffic (road killed turtles) and the increased run off from the aforementioned projects have gouged out the once clear bottom streams that wood turtles need. In two of the last three years I’ve not seen a single wood turtle in my countless hours of my nature forays here in the Times News region.

I’ve done some research and it appears that my observation of declining turtles is accurate. Some studies note that as we have made more and more intrusions into forests and woodlots, we keep isolating the turtles from each other. More roads, homes and parking lots are leading to forest fragmentation and less chances for the wood turtles to interact and breed.

Since turtles aren’t as mobile as birds, it makes it harder for turtles to find mates. The result of course, less and less egg production and a population decline. More housing development roads and improved roads (no longer dirt roads) have resulted in higher speeds and more road killed turtles.

Our continued inroads into the forests have led to population increases in egg predators, like raccoons (in particular) and opossums.

If wood turtle populations are healthy, losing a few turtle nests each year is not a problem. But as the population declines, the yearly losses can’t allow the populations even to maintain their numbers, let alone grow.

I doubt, since wood turtles don’t get the media attention as do bald eagles, peregrine falcons, or whooping cranes, that their population will ever recover. “Who cares if a turtle species disappears anyway” is a thought some people might have. The animals all have a niche to fill. When will the disappearance of species have a huge affect on us? Well, if we work hard to educate, maybe we can avoid those losses.

Note the photos of turtles accompanying this column and let me know if you have seen any in the past few years. My email is attached. (Let’s call this an informal wildlife survey)

Remember, let’s get out there and enjoy nature around us and do our best to save the meadows, streams, woodlots and forests from disappearing at the rate they are today.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: About ___ percent of songbird nests are discovered and the eggs eaten by squirrels and chipmunks each summer. A. 10 B. 30 C. 50

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: A squirrel’s nest made from leaf laden twigs in the summertime is called a drey.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.