Eastern box turtle Special concern
Adult turtles live a long time, for example Box Turtles are known to live longer than 100 years. However, because turtle eggs and juvenile turtles have so many predators and must face many other survival difficulties, only a tiny percentage of turtles ever reach adulthood. Therefore, the survival of adult turtles which have been fortunate enough to surmount these obstacles is very important. For this reason a turtle must live for many years and reproduce many times in order to replace themselves in their population. Losing any adult turtles, and particularly adult females, is a serious problem that can tragically lead to the eventual local extinction of a population.
Most turtles require multiple types of habitats to fulfill all of their survival needs. For example, the Blanding's Turtle overwinter in permanent wetlands, often move to vernal pools to feed, nest in open gravelly upland areas, and move among marshes, shrub swamps and other wetland types throughout the summer. In order to access all of these resources in one season, they will often have to cross roads. Roads are one of the most prominent threats to turtles. The number one threat is habitat loss, fragmentation, and degradation due to residential and commercial development. Other threats include collection as pets (both commercial and incidental), disease, increased levels of predation in urban and suburban areas, and succession of nesting and other open habitats. Text from http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/conservation/herps/turtle_tips.htm
Fact sheet: http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/species_info/nhfacts/terrapene_carolina.pdf
Distrubution map on fact sheet shows they occur in Harwich.
Liz Willey: Turtleconservationproject.org
OVERVIEW: Eastern box turtles (terrepene c. carolina) are declining throughout their range as a result of habitat loss and fragmentation, road mortality, and collection for the pet trade. They are listed as a species of concern in Massachusetts where development pressures add to climatic stresses at their northern range limit. Results from mark-recapture and telemetry efforts throughout the Connecticut Valley over the past two years indicate that box turtles can move a straight line distance up to 2.2 km annually to access required habitats. Box turtles use deciduous and mixed forest types over the winter and heavily managed early successional habitats such as agricultural fields, backyards, powerline corridors, and abandoned gravel pits from May - September. Road and mowing mortality, collection, and disturbance of nest sites by ATVs could lead to population decline even at protected sites thoughout the region. Appropriately timed management of habitats, education regarding collection, and human use restrictions on nest sites, could help mitigate the continued loss of habitat across the state.
Most thorough fact sheet:
http://web4.msue.msu.edu/mnfi/abstracts/zoology/terrapene_carolina.pdf
New England Bluet Enallagma laterale Special Concern
Fact sheet: http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/nhesp/species_info/nhfacts/enallagma_laterale.pdf
Pine Barrens Bluet Enallagma recurvatum Threatened
Odephoto has a great photo on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fsmodel/4441468577/sizes/l/in/photostream/ can't download
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