Silt fences stop box turtles' migration to breed and lay eggs

This silt fence has many problems, particularly one of the now-dead trees in the riparian zone of the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River lying across it.


Some towns and counties in the United States have special commissions to deal with wetland issues.
The degree of detail that the Simsbury, Connecticut, Conservation Commission considers when approving construction in and around wetland areas is impressive. There would be plenty of knowedgeable people in Northwest Arkansas ready to serve if the cities and towns and counties would create conservation commissions here.

The box turtle facing toward the silt fence while sitting near the Town Branch may have been wondering how to reach the area where he used to find his mate two or three times a year. When silt fences are dug into the ground to prevent eroded soil from reaching a stream, they also prevent the passage of some species back and forth between the stream and the land where those species spend much of their time.

In the timbered wetland and moist-soil prairies near Northwest Arkansas streams, the most visible victim is the box turtle, which may spend months away from a permanent source of water by utilizing dew and rainwater and burrowing into the soft, damp earth. However, during the annual droughts of several weeks in Northwest Arkansas, these turtles may migrate to a spring or stream when their normal forest and prairie areas are bone dry.

The clearing of nearly 30 acres for Aspen Ridge resulted in a major migration of box turtles toward the Town Branch in summer 2005. At that time, the silt fences were new and blocked many from escaping the hot sun and the dry dirt. Youngsters in the neighborhood set some over the silt fences and released them to the water source.

Even water-dwelling turtles migrate far from swamps, lakes and streams to find the right soil to lay their eggs. Newly cleared land of any sort but particularly land where the naturally rich topsoil has been replaced with red dirt or paved over can be a fatal problem for these creatures.

About two decades ago in North Little Rock, a large auto-display lot was built on flat former pasture/prairie acreage between an old oxbow or cypress swamp off Bayou Meto and a major highway. Hundreds of water-based turtles were seen crossing the highway and trying to continue further to find suitable habitat for nesting after finding the gravel and concrete covering what had historically been a fully vegetated place to burrow in their eggs. Even those who succeeded in crossing and nesting may never have made it back to the water and any hatchlings would have been unlikely to make the return. Maybe a careless hawk or crow might have picked one up and dropped it in the right area to have a chance. But that seems far-fetched. Most simply died.

This is only one of the many shameful problems that occur when development isn't planned to allow for existing residents of an area, both people and other living things.