Wood Turtle Habitat Use and Agricultural Mortality at a Farm Landscape in Eastern New York

To seek ways of reducing on-farm mortality of Glyptemys insculpta (Wood Turtle), we conducted radiotelemetry for 4 years at an intensively farmed river valley in eastern New York. We documented farm-related mortality of Wood Turtles, which was mostly associated with the use of a roller-crimper tractor implement on cover crops planted in organic legume and maize fields. In places where there were larger areas of the favored terrestrial forb-shrub thicket between stream channel and cropfields, the turtles were less likely to move into hazardous cultivated areas. Turtles were more likely to move into those hazardous areas during nesting forays, when summer temperatures were high, at times of high flows caused by reservoir releases, and when crossing cropfields from overwintering habitats to active-season habitats. Nesting occurred in a disused gravel pit, on gravel bars, and in cropfields.