Lake George Turtle Monitoring Program (LGTMP)

The LGA has launched a new volunteer monitoring program!

The LGA is working with the Endangered Species Unit of the DEC and an independent field biologist, Karen Robbins, to gather much needed data on turtles in the Lake George Watershed. The Lake George area is the recorded habitat for 5 different species of turtles; the Northern Map, Painted, Wood, Common Musk, and Snapping turtle. There is also the possibility of a 6th turtle in the area, the Spotted turtle, however there is no confirmed evidence, only a reported sighting of this species. Both Wood and Spotted turtles are species of Special Concern in New York State, and the Northern Map turtle is listed as a “species of greatest conservation need” by the NY State Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (DEC 2005).

The Lake George Turtle Monitoring Program will use volunteers to get a better idea of turtle populations within the Lake George Watershed. The data will help determine turtle population size and distribution as well as providing insight into their movement patterns and habitat use.

Click here to see the data for each of 4 weeks of monitoring.

Volunteers will receive a pocket field guide to turtles of the Lake George watershed for them to use while in the field collecting data. Monitoring will be conducted in “snapshots” similar to the popular Christmas Bird Count program.

 Volunteers will count turtles in their chosen location for one day during each of these weeks: Memorial Day, the third week in June, Independence Day, and Labor Day. Observations can be taken at your convenience anytime during these weeks, for a total of 4 days of counting.

This will be a great opportunity for you and your family to learn more about your turtle neighbors while collecting data important to the conservation of turtles and protection of biodiversity of the Lake George Watershed. You do not need a boat to participate, as volunteers can monitor turtles in the lake or in wetlands and ponds in the area. If you do not have a specific location where you have seen turtles in the past but would like to participate, we can help you pick a location to monitor. All in all, anyone can help monitor.

See more turtles in the LGTMP Photo Gallery.

How'd we do in Season 1?

Our first season of turtle monitoring has come to a close with great success. Over the 4 weeks, around 400 turtles were sighted!  This was a great start to collecting data about the turtle population in the Lake George area. 

Northern Map, Painted and Snapping Turtles were the most common species seen, with an occasional Musk turtle sighting in the northern end. Out of 23 groups of volunteers monitoring (some “groups” are just one person, some are 2 or more), 11 groups reported results for all 4 weeks and 8 groups reported for 3 out of 4 weeks. 2 groups only turned in 2 weeks of data, and 2 groups decided not to monitor after attending the training session.  

Overall, we had amazing commitment and dedication from our volunteers for which we are very thankful. We hope many volunteers plan to continue with the project next summer and hope to add some new recruits as well. 

Karen is starting to go over the data and will work to weed out any duplicate sightings and finalize the numbers before she enters them into her analysis program. We need years of data to really see trends in the population numbers and any effects that habitat fragmentation or water quality might have, but we are off to a great start. We will post updates online as we summarize the data. 

We plan to continue with another training session for new volunteers and a review for continuing volunteers next spring. Thanks to everyone for a great first year and see you all next year!