| The pandemic prevented our local in-person meetings in 2020 and 2021. |  |
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Meetings in 2022 and 2023
Hudson River Park's 10th Annual SUBMERGE Marine Science Festival
Held Saturday, September 30, on Pier 84 in Manhattan
See Home Page for details.
Urban Wildlife Appreciation Day 2023
Held Saturday, May 13, 2023
Highbridge Park, 173rd and Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan
See slide show of this event..
Urban Wildlife Appreciation Day 2022
Held Saturday, May 13, 2022
Highbridge Park, 173rd and Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan
See slide show of this event..
Meetings Fall 2018–Spring 2019
Annual Turtle and Tortoise ShowHeld June 15, 2019
Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak
35 Alexander Street, Yonkers, New York
See Show list of Show winners and photos.
Held Saturday, March 23, 2019
Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak
35 Alexander Street, Yonkers, New York
See Seminar 2019.
Patricia Johnson, Wildlife Rehabilitator,Center for Reptile and Amphibian Conservation
Saturday, December 8, 3:00 p.m.
Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew
86th Street and West End Avenue, New York City
“A Hatchling Pips: The Birth of the Center
for Reptile and Amphibian Conservation”
Herpetologist Patricia Johnson took us through an overview of the projects at CRAC. Rehabilitating one turtle is not only an act of compassion for an individual animal, but has greater implications that can buy years of survival for a population. Patricia had stories of these majestic creatures — true symbols of hope in these times.
Patricia Johnson is certified in reptile monitoring by the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation and a New York State Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator. She specializes in native turtles, with a particular interest in Eastern Box Turtles. In 2015 she was selected to be the NEPARC Fellow–Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science PARC/SSAR workshop.Patricia produces Turtle Intensives, semi-annual meetings to spark conversations and the sharing of ideas among those working in turtle conservation. She has co-authored five award-winning books with her husband (www.projectcoyoteibwo.com) and lives in Yorktown Heights. They share their home with three parrots, four cats, and dozens of turtle patients at any given time. See www.TurtleAdvocate.org.
Saturday, June 9, 2018
Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak
35 Alexander Street, Yonkers, New York
See Show Rules and directions.
Urban Wildlife Appreciation Day
Held Saturday, May 5, 2018
Highbridge Park, 173rd and Amsterdam Avenue, Manhattan
See slide show of this event..
Held Saturday, April 7, 2018
Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak
35 Alexander Street, Yonkers, New York
See Seminar 2018.
Held Saturday, February 10, 2018, 3:00 p.m.
Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew
West 86th Street and West End Avenue in Manhattan
“Hatching Failure in a New Jersey Wood Turtle Population”
Thomas Duchak is freelance researcher, environmental educator, and adjunct professor who developed a fascination for turtles at a very young age. In 2016 he obtained his Master of Science in Biology at Hofstra University, studying the reproductive ecology of wood turtles in northwest New Jersey. He continues to study several aspects of wood turtle biology and conservation including population dynamics and demography, home range and habitat use, thermal biology, population genetics, and nesting ecology, but his major research interests involve identifying factors that limit reproduction in wild turtle populations.
North American wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) have been suffering a range-wide population decline since the mid-1900s. Habitat destruction and degradation have already eliminated numerous wood turtle populations while threats such as illegal poaching for the pet trade, unnaturally high predator populations (e.g., rodents, raccoons, skunks, etc.), automobiles, and agricultural machinery continue to negatively impact existing populations. Monitoring efforts of these turtles usually involve population surveys to assess population viability but seldom investigate rates of reproductive success.
Since 2013, Thomas has been collecting annual wood turtle nesting data at a turtle nesting site in northwest New Jersey. Despite being one of the state's premier wood turtle sites, the annual overall hatch rates for the entire population are always low. Some females in the population always have bad hatch rates for their clutches while other females have good or variable hatch rates for their clutches. The study concerns one population in which some females always have poor rates of success and this drags the entire population’s yearly success rates down.
To gather more clues about the causes of maternally linked hatching failure in this population, Thomas has extended the scope of this study to include more study areas and two additional species that share nesting habitat with wood turtles. He is also surveying these turtles for biocontaminants that affect hatching success in turtles and other egg-laying reptiles. It is hoped that investigating the hatch rates and contaminant levels of wood, painted, and snapping turtles at several adjacent sites will reveal whether the low hatch rates are indicative of a localized problem that only affects certain wood turtle populations or a more widespread problem that compromises the well-being of several species.
  View from corner of Broadway and West 86th Street looking west. Note subway station in the right foreground and church tower beyond. Farther west on W. 86th Street, approaching side entrance (behind tree) to the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew
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Review previous meetings in 2016–2017.
Review previous meetings in 2015–2016.
Review previous meetings in 2014–2015.
Review previous meetings in 2013–2014.