A group of Kelowna students were shocked to find out recently they’ve been severely impacting the local turtle population.
The Western Painted Turtle has been nesting in sandboxes the KLO Middle School students use for long jump.
While preparing for a track and field event in April, students discovered broken eggs and two baby turtles in the sand.
Following the rescue of the two prematurely hatched reptiles, the students are feeding them in a classroom in the hopes of making amends.
As the Western Painted Turtles are on the provincial species blue list as a sensitive reptile that survives in a threatened environment, the pits have been surrounded with security fencing and further digging has been curtailed.
“I’m just amazed that they’ve survived this long if they’ve been nesting here for a couple of years now,” says Tegan Morgan, 15, who says students were shocked to find out they’ve been jumping on turtle nests.
The find coincides with the efforts of several KLO students to restore Fascieux Creek, which runs through the property, back to a riparian area.
Their idea to remove paving stones and culvert pipe was presented to School District 23’s superintendent of schools Tuesday.
“I think it’s also a bit of extra motivation,” 15-year-old student Kaylie Payne says regarding the impact of finding a turtle nesting ground in the sandboxes while they look to recover the creek habitat. “We’re already committed to this. But this is just saying ok, we need this done now. It needs to be done soon.”
Nicolette Vincent and Jennifer Loukras are nursing the turtle babies in a classroom terrarium created by a local biologist.
“It’s a little bit difficult because you don’t want the turtles to become adapted to human life and being constantly fed,” says Vincent. “We’re trying to keep their habitat as close to normal as it would be in real life.”
“If we can make it a safe environment for them, they might permanently come and stay here,” says Loukras of the proposal to open Facieux Creek on the school property.
Female Western Painted turtles will travel up to 150 metres to nest in well drained sand.
The long jump sandboxes have been permanently retired as a school facility and will now become permanently protected areas.
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