Wildlife biology students put conservation into practice with Chesapeake Bay terrapins

David Fenohr had never worked as a biologist in the field when he came across his first terrapin, a hatchling headfirst in the mud on an island in the Chesapeake Bay.

Fenohr had signed up to spend the summer with Professor Willem Roosenburg (opens in a new window) on his multi-year project to help Maryland's diamondback terrapins make a comeback—thanks to an island that gives the turtles a haven free from most nest predators.

Each summer, Roosenburg recruits a team of graduate and undergraduate students to live in a house on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay and spend Monday through Friday boating out to Poplar Island (opens in a new window) to find, measure, and tag the terrapins.

"The first time I picked up a turtle I was 'rolling rack,' which was basically combing the tall marsh grass on the banks of one of the small channels in one of the cells on Poplar Island. I pulled the grass aside, and there was a little hatching from an over-wintering nest stuck head first in the mud," said Fenohr, a senior a wildlife biology and conservation science major (opens in a new window) with a minor in plant biology (opens in a new window) who plans to graduate this fall from the College of Arts and Sciences.

Roosenburg has a field manual and extensive training for students detailing what to do in every terrapin encounter, so Fenohr proceeded to process the tiny turtle and then release him. Measurements and tracking are key to Roosenburg's assessment of the terrapin population.

Both Poplar Island and diamondback terrapins are making a comeback, as dredged material is being used to rebuild the island once nearly decimated by erosion. While people have abandoned the island, Maryland has moved to restore the valuable habitat for ospreys, herons, eagles, terrapins, and other wildlife.

“Because the habitat available for terrapins on Poplar Island is expanding and there are no nest predators, the terrapin population is increasing and therefore serving as a model for turtle conservation," Roosenburg, professor of Biological Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, said.

Roosenburg started working with terrapins in 1986 and began the Chesapeake Bay program in 2002. One of his monitoring points involves tracking the terrapins' reproduction, which means finding nests and, if the nest has been found with 24 hours of being laid, counting and measuring the eggs.

"The first time I found a nest by myself I was walking on the Center Dike with Dr. Roosenburg,” Fenohr said. “I spotted a section of dirt that was disturbed in the typical crescent moon shape with claw marks from the mother turtle burying the eggs. It was an exciting experience because Dr. Roosenburg had just instructed me on what to look for, and then shortly after I discovered my first one of the summer. I had gone out nesting once or twice before but had come back empty-handed, so this was my 'ah-ha' moment where I felt confident in my abilities to search for terrapin nests."

While helping to save the turtles is a noble endeavor, it's also a physically demanding one. Summers in Maryland are hot and humid, but long sleeves, long pants, and stout shoes are required, along with a lot of sunscreen. But Roosenburg noted that everyone ends the summer with a tan and a boatload of memories about their summer on the Chesapeake Bay despite the demanding work.

"The most challenging aspect of the summer had to be setting up the fyke nets in the cells," Fenohr added. "I tackled this task each week, and for the most part it was relatively simple and went smoothly, although there were a few Mondays when the wind was so strong that it would push the rowboat back considerably, which made it difficult to hammer the stakes that hold the nests into the muddy substrate of the channels."

This summer was Fenohr's first field experience working with wildlife, but he said it won't be his last.

"My favorite memories of the summer had to be the days when we had 60+ turtles that we had to process. This would take a few hours, but it offered many opportunities to handle and study the turtles we were on the island for. This also helped me cement the idea that I wanted to continue with fieldwork post-grad. I was also unsure about whether or not I wanted to pursue graduate school, and this opportunity made me realize that I want to continue my education as well," he said.

Additional students joining Roosenburg for the summer experience were biological sciences graduate students Kelsey Krumm and David Cole and senior wildlife and conservation biology majors Molly Haugen, Kendall Kuck, Trent Langenkamp, and Ashlynn Canode.