Lake George Turtle Monitoring Program (LGTMP)

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 Weeks 1-3 of the 2009 monitoring season.

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 the 2007-2008 LGTMP Report (pdf file)

See the 2009 Volunteer Review and Retraining presentation (pdf file)

Season 3 -- 2009

The 2009 season of turtle monitoring is coming to an end on August 8th. Several monitors have turned in results for the first three weeks of monitoring bringing the total to 355 turtle sightings. Week 2 which ran from June 13th to June 20th seems to be the standout week thus far with 129 turtle sightings. Of those 129 sightings that week, 105 were of Map turtles.

The majority of turtles seen have been Map turtles. They have made up 76% of the results with their 269 sightings. Monitors have also seen 51 Painted, 20 Snapping, 13 Unknown, and 2 Musk turtles.

We thank both returning volunteers and the additional 24 volunteers that were trained this season that have been out monitoring the watershed. This season has brought our total to 80 individuals out there collecting data on the Lake George turtle populations.

Check out our turtle photo gallery season by season.

Season 2 -- 2008 - End of Season Summary

The LGA's second season of the Lake George Turtle Monitoring Program added an additional 326 turtle sightings to the data. About 75% of the turtles seen were Map and 17% were Painted turtles. Thirty-two locations were monitored at least once during the 2008 program. Several turtles were seen at Crow Island, Clark Island, Dunham's Bay, and Ticonderoga Beach. (See the 2008 data.)

We were very lucky to have return volunteers as well as many new monitors during the season. Data came from 21 groups that reported back to us. Of those reports, 7 reported results for all 4 weeks and 6 reported results for 3 weeks. The rest of the data came from 4 groups that reported for 2 weeks and 4 groups that recorded for 1 week.

Check out the 2008 season’s turtle photo gallery and also our “bonus” gallery.  These are turtle photos sent in to us that are not part of our monitoring data – but that are so good we can’t help but share them!

Season 1 -- 2007

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. (See the 2007 data)

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.