Oregon's Native Turtles

Western pond and western painted turtles are priority species under the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife's Oregon Conservation Strategy.  Native turtles occur in many ecoregions within Oregon including the Willamette Valley. In 2011, Oregon Wildlife provided capstone funding to a project proposed by Oregon Wildlife Institute that, using Portland as a case study, would develop a conservation management plan to help restore and protect Oregon's native turtles.  The field work underlying the development of that plan was concluded last summer.  The Principal Investigator, Dr. Daniel Rosenberg, is an ecologist and Co-Director of the Oregon Wildlife Institute as well as an Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology at Oregon State University.  He was recently the lead author of a conservation assessment of the western pond turtle.  Click here to view details of that research study.

	Dr. Dan Rosenberg of the Oregon Wildlife Institute joined us on Wednesday, February 8th, to talk about Oregon's native turtles, Portland's resident population, and the efforts underway to protect and conserve them. If you would like to support native turtle conservation in the Portland metropolitan area, click the button below to make a secure and tax-deductible donation online.  To register early for Oregon Wildlife events such as this presentation on native turtles, join us online.
western pond (L) and western painted turtle (R); picture courtesy of ODFW