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Some Île-Bizard residents are going above and beyond in an effort to save the lives of wild turtles in their area.
Feeling the city was not taking the plight of the turtles seriously, residents have set up their own road signs warning motorists to slow down for turtles crossing the street.
“It didn’t seem to be a priority for the city, so we decided to take matters into our own hands,” Île-Bizard resident Isabelle Turgeon told Global News.
On Chemin Bord-du-Lac near the northern tip of Île-Bizard, motorists often zoom around the curves. The area is also home to three turtle species.
“There are painted turtles, snapping turtles — that’s the very big one, the largest one we have in Quebec — and there’s the map turtles,” explained Pierre-Alexandre Bourgeois, a biologist with the Ecomuseum Zoo in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue.
He said while the map turtles don’t stray far from the shores of the Lac des Deux Montagnes, painted turtles and snapping turtles spend time in inland wetlands in Île-Bizard. June was the turtles’ nesting season, when they seek out a good place to lay eggs.
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“That’s the season where there could be more turtles seen on roads,” said Bourgeois.
“We noticed in June there was a lot of turtles going by, and in the same week I had to stop four times to move turtles of different sizes,” said Turgeon.
When cars and turtles share the same area, it’s a story that inevitably ends badly for the turtles. In about 30 minutes on Bord du Lac Monday, Global News saw at least four sets of flattened turtle remains.
“For sure this one got run over, and then a predator came and ate him,” said Turgeon as she examined a deceased turtle.
“If there’s a too high percentage of adult turtles that die from road mortality, it could have a huge effect on the population and start a decline to local extinction,” said Bourgeois.
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Turgeon was among a group of residents who have had enough. The issue was brought up at Île-Bizard borough council at the beginning of July. Though he was at the meeting, borough mayor Normand Marinacci said he didn’t recall.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t really remember if it was brought up at town council,” he said.
After the issue was dismissed by city councillors, Turgeon and others went rogue.
“One person offered to make the sign and I offered to go purchase the post at the hardware store and installed it with my friends,” she said.
The signs can now be seen both on Bord du Lac and on Montée de l’église.
“I would have preferred they call us to say ‘there’s a problem with the turtles, can we do something?'” said Marinacci, adding he cares deeply for wildlife and green spaces.
Though the signs were installed without the proper permits, he said for now there are no plans for the city to remove them.
“They’re my responsibility,” said Turgeon. “I’m willing to take them down in the fall to help with snow removal and put then them back up in the following spring.”
Turgeon hopes that motorists start getting the message to slow down in her turtle zones. After seeing the horrible mangled remains of at least four turtles on Monday, she plans to install a few more signs.
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