Wood Turtle (threatened species)

To prove this you only have to examine the ecology of your backyard compared with the state it was in a mere 20 years past. Species once common, now rare in our woodlands, have collided with land-use law in recent times. One example, the state threatened wood turtle, has garnered the headlines of late. The implications of these collisions’ may need a bit of explanation for those who cannot connect the dots between the struggles to fulfill human needs with that of maintaining ecological balance with the rest of the living world. I take guarded pause in naming a turtle at the risk of knowing that many may giggle under their breath at the thought of comparing the existence of a lowly testudine with that of our lofty species. I understand the difficulty in wrapping our brains around the regulatory logic the Department of Environmental Protection exercises when the presence of a threatened or endangered species results in the loss of perceived human necessity. How is it that I dare and pit the continued existence of a mindless turtle with the obligation we have to provide our children with recreational fields and housing? Please indulge me in a moment of your time to connect those dots.

To give this species its due you must first find one. One must travel deeper into the woods to come nose to brow with this creature that the earth has forged from stone. Most sightings these days are of the two-dimensional kind – adults found crushed on roads, highways, and railroad beds.

Wood Turtle (climbing on tree)

In comparison with how long this species has been around (fossil records indicate 1.8 million years) it’s disheartening to realize that its shelf life is on the verge of expiration. Turtles have survived five ice ages and the weighty footsteps of dinosaurs yet this reclusive denizen of our backyards is in the mist of its greatest challenge. An endangered species biologist recently said it best when describing this species, “If a wood turtle is not a testament to the concept of - if it broke don’t fix it - I don’t know what is”. Through no design of its own this incredibly adapted life form finds itself at the doorstep of human expansion in clear sight of the endless night that is extinction.

So what you might ask. Why should anyone in my town or the next town over care if wood turtles go bye-bye. Would we notice or even give it a fleeting cognitive thought if this species were to vanish from the planet. Why should we anyway – we cannot grind it into soup to fuel our cars or heat buildings, we cannot feed the masses with its flesh, we cannot build additions to our homes with its body – why should we care?

Homocentric questions like these all too often demand that the biosphere work for man and man only or else be sacrificed in the name of progress. Human evolution has imprinted in our genes an uncontrollable impulse to subjugate all other life forms solely for the benefit of our own species. This, I’m afraid, will be in the end, a killer gene that results in our undoing. In order for our species to survive, we must use the evolutionary advantage of cognitive reasoning and learn that balance and stability are the basic underpinnings of ecology. We must find a way to turn off this gene when looking at life forms as commodities.

Wood Turtles (Tête á Tête)

Unfortunately for my wood turtle buddies, they have no direct benefits found of yet that would make life better for people. Like so many other creatures, this species is intricately woven in the fabric of our own survival. Getting people to realize the intrinsic price tag of species as they pertain to ecological systems is tricky business. The problem is the average man thinks myopically- incapable of seeing past the next subdivision. Species all over the world, at first thought to be worthless, have proved themselves to us in countless ways. Not nearly enough has been made of this. The fight against world hunger, disease, and scientific understanding owe much to our earth’s biodiversity.

We destroy far too many species before they’ve had a chance to prove their merit. Scientists have estimated that extinctions are occurring at a 100 times the historic background rate. Less than 2% of all life forms have been analyzed in enough biological detail to extract the resource they may produce. The few that received the attention they deserved yielded a cornucopia of assistance to humanity. You name an affliction that has plagued man and you can bet there is a drug out there with a natural component to help in its cure. It has been estimated that 45% of all pharmaceuticals have a direct biochemical ingredient derived directly from a plant or animal.

Wood Turtle (close-up)

For illustrative purposes, I’ll give one example of a species which before its notoriety was as mundane as a wood turtle is to most of us. A non-descript plant from Madagascar may put the exclamation on my point. Residing on this large island is a periwinkle plant whose leaves hold within its biochemistry an alkaloid capable of stopping Hodgkin’s disease in its track.

Now imagine the indigenous people living near the habitat of this plant without the knowledge that this herb had in custody of its tissue the cure for this significant human affliction. Suppose that the villagers needed to expand their agricultural base and wanted to clear some of the last remaining forest patch that harbored the plant. Imagine the laughter in public forums when some conservation minded group announced that they wanted to save “the periwinkle”. That same laughter surrounds me when I talk about blue-spotted salamanders, swamp pink and barred owls.

Scientists must take the time to evaluate species beyond their anatomical descriptions. They must do this in order to unlock the secrets that might cure the next cancer, design the next robotic, or give insight to what the true value a species represents in the process of ecological functioning.

That is the connection to which I originally alluded. We must stop this nonsense of analyzing the value of species in the present as if they were penny stocks. This is environmental accounting in the name of barbarism. Even if we never use the wood turtle for direct benefit to humans, ecologists understand the role they play in nature’s grand scheme. Plants, animals, microbes, fungi (biodiversity) are set in place to perform a multitude of ecological functions directly responsible in the stabilization of our forests, deserts, and oceans. We of course cash-in through the use of these healthy ecosystems.