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Interview Questions for Mr. Willem Roosenberg:

 

1. Was Turtle Connection something you started or was it collective program that begun with a specific organization?

 

Arlington Echo as a collaborative project started terrapin Connection with Steve Barry, Will Williams, the AACPS and myself.  Funding has come from a variety of sources including CBT, AACPS, Ohio University and the Army Corps of Engineers.  In 2008 NAIB became involved as well as Horn Point Environmental Lab.

 

2. After reading about the Arlington Echo, I was slightly confused on who runs the entire turtle program. Is it one organization or many that sponsor the program?

 

Will Williams runs AE outreach / Terrapin Connection program but has others who in the AE staff and faculty that are involved.  Funding comes from a variety of sources - see above. I provide the terrapins from PIERP and I am responsible for PIT tagging and endoscopy.  I also run the recapture study out on the PIERP. You and your students handle raising the animals. All have distinct yet integral roles.

 

 3. Last week we measured our turtle, do you know where the information goes and is there a database containing all the turtles in the program?

 

I maintain the data of the size of your terrapin and the time of capture and at the time of PIT tagging/endoscopy.  I also maintain the database of all the PIT tag IDs and the recapture data.  Will Williams maintains the growth data from the classrooms - This is more an exercise for your students than actual research.  If you are affiliated with the NAIB then Heather Minick maintains or collects your data.

 

 

I asked Willem Roosenburg, a biologist at Ohio University these questions. He has been really helpful to me throughout my research so far. The terrapin in the classroom was something he started a while back and has great success with it. For my last questions I will be interviewing Mr. Will Williams from Arlington Echo.

 

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Interview Questions for Mr. Will Williams:

 

1. I know you work with the Terrapin Connection program. How did this program get started? Was it your or a co-worker's passion?

            Terrapin Connection was started 6 years ago when we were working with another terrapin conservation organization. The idea was to place pairs of terrapin hatchlings in a small number of classrooms and have students raise and release them. Other than collecting growth data, there was no real research component. At the end of the school year, terrapins were released back into the Bay at various locations with no real idea where they had hatched. Scientifically and ethically this is not a good idea. When I started at AE, I was given the task of taking over the program and expanding it to include more schools as the program was becoming very popular. I met some of the staff from Poplar Island who works for the Port of Baltimore and the Maryland Environmental Service at an environmental education conference. They had an exhibit featuring terrapin hatchlings that were born on this human-made island in the middle of the Bay. They wanted students to know about their restoration efforts and I wanted terrapins that could be used as part of an authentic research project – so a partnership was formed. It wasn’t long before I met Dr. Willem Roosenburg, who was conducting terrapin research on Poplar Island and soon discovered that he is the world’s authority on terrapins and has published extensive research. He is also a really nice guy and we have become good friends. In five years our program has grown to include 76 classrooms at 60 schools, and we have raised, tagged, and released over 500 terrapins back on Poplar Island as part of Dr. Roosenburg’s research on the survivability of classroom-raised terrapins. Although my job here at AE includes a lot more than terrapins, I have become known as the “terrapin guy” and get a lot of requests about them. Because our program is controlled by a DNR Scientific Collection Permit and is highly regulated, we are limited to 160 hatchlings each school year and I cannot include any additional schools. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t get a call or e-mail from around the state – and other states, to participate.

 

2. What is the importance of the growth data? And once the turtle is released, do you continue to monitor its growth?

            The growth data is very important.  In the wild, terrapin hatchlings go into hibernation soon after hatching and spend their first year of life hiding in wetlands and in the mud. They feed very little and do not grow during this time, living off their internal yolk reserves. When they emerge from hibernation they are same size as when they hatched. They are also bite-sized and are a food source for many predators, including crabs, seagulls, blue herons, and fish. On Poplar Island, there are no land predators such as raccoons, skunks, foxes, and dogs who often dig up terrapin nests and eat the eggs before they can hatch. Although unpleasant, this is nature…and the reason why terrapins lay an average of 13 eggs, sometimes twice a year. In the wild they have a 1% survival rate. Our classroom-raised terrapins don’t hibernate, live in a warm tank, and get fed twice a day. When they are released in May and June, they are the size of a 3-4 year old terrapin and are no longer bite-sized, although they can still be preyed upon by large birds such as blue herons and Bald eagles. The research is examining the survival rates of these larger terrapins who have been given a “head start” in the classroom. Terrapins are surgically tagged with a microchip or PIT tag (Passive Integrated Transponder) which has a unique code to identify the individual terrapins. This device does not allow us to track the terrapin, so it must be recaptured and scanned with a tag reader. Fortunately terrapins don’t travel far and will spend most of their lives near Poplar Island, where they can be recaptured with floating nets and devices similar to crab pots. This summer we were very excited when Dr. Roosenburg and his staff recaptured 9 classroom terrapins from previous years, yielding important growth information. Some of the terrapins released 5 years ago may be at reproductive maturity because of their size (in the wild terrapins don’t reach egg-laying age for 7-9 years) and next summer Dr. Roosenburg’s staff will search the beaches at Poplar to find females who may return to nest. The search will continue each summer to recapture classroom terrapins. If all goes well this number will increase as we continue he project. Dr. Roosenburg’s other Poplar Island research can be found on his website, I will include some links below.

 

3. What other projects are you/Arlington Echo currently working on? Do you only study the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding areas?

            Some of the other things we do at AE involve raising bay grasses in the classroom, raising American eels (I am also the eel guy), and raising endangered plants like the carnivorous pitcher plant and Atlantic white cedar trees. Most of our work involves the Bay, mainly because we are located on the Severn River and have a lot of water access. I’ll include a link to our website also, we do a lot of crazy stuff to get kids connected with the environment!

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.