by Ben Prater, Conservation Director and Steve Krichbaum, Wild South volunteer

The South is home to an abundance of reptiles. Turtles, snakes and lizards of all kinds can be found throughout the forests. In the Southeast the Wood Turtle is found only in Virginia. The Wood Turtle’s range is northern Virginia and West Virginia up through the Northeast and upper Midwest and into southern Canada. They are tolerant of cold climates and are active at lower environmental temperatures than most other reptiles.

The Turtles are amphibious and display seasonal shifts in habitat usage: in the winter they hibernate under water and become increasingly terrestrial during the summer. Wood Turtles are usually found in or near clear flowing streams and in adjacent hardwood forests, meadows and old fields. Favorite foods include berries, mushrooms, herbaceous leaves, and many kinds of animals, including earthworms, insects, snails, slugs, tadpoles and dead fish. They rarely venture far from flowing water (usually within 300 meters of water), but have strong homing instincts and will usually try to return to their original location if they are displaced. Wood Turtles will climb into bushes to eat berries or stomp on the ground to draw earthworms to the surface to eat.

Wood Turtles are active during the day and are easily distinguished from the East’s other species of woodland turtle, the Eastern Box Turtle. Adult Wood Turtles have a brownish knobby carapace (upper shell) around 6 to 8 inches long with scutes (plates) that have concentric growth rings similar to the growth rings on a tree. The hingeless plastron (lower shell) is yellowish with a dark blotch on each scute. Adults are often brightly colored with orange on the neck and limbs. Young Wood Turtles also have a long tail. In Virginia the Wood Turtle most often breeds in the fall and lays its eggs the following Spring. Wood Turtles lay one clutch annually of between 4 and 18 eggs. Wood Turtles can live for more than sixty years.

Extinction Pressure

The intense development of the Wood Turtle's native range has fragmented populations and shrunken available habitat which affects both the current population and limits their ability to repopulate areas. In addition, global warming threatens to alter their aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Wood Turtles face accumulating assault that can prevent many populations from persisting. The Turtles may not reproduce enough or survive long enough to make up for collection, predation or road kill, as well as losses from habitat alteration or development. Wood Turtles benefit from clean water and intact forests. So what’s good for Wood Turtles is good for people.

Conservation Status

In Virginia the Wood Turtle is officially listed as “Threatened” under the state’s Endangered Species legislation and is considered to be “declining.” Both Virginia and West Virginia consider the Turtle to be “very rare and imperiled,” prompting both state wildlife agencies place it in "Priority Group 1" in each state’s wildlife conservation strategy, meaning it is a “species of greatest conservation need.”

In order to protect Wood Turtles from being wiped out in the Virginias, efforts are underway to protect their existing habitat on the George Washington National Forest. Forest managers are planning to clear wildlife fields overrun with non-native invasive species and relocate a trail to accommodate the Wood Turtle. The ongoing Forest Plan Revision process provides opportunities for further conservation efforts. These include the designation of “special biological areas” and strictly protecting Turtle habitat from logging, road building, burning and other development. By making the preservation of its habitat a priority in the Plan, forest managers can begin to do all they can to protect the imperiled Wood Turtle.