Freshwater turtles in the path of California wildfires rescued from destruction

When fires raged in California, the state’s only native freshwater turtles found themselves fighting for survival in a devastated habitat.

The Bobcat Fire broke out east of Los Angeles earlier this fall and spread to nearly 116,000 acres, destroying 87 homes, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The area was home to wildlife, including the last remaining viable population of southwestern pond turtles in the San Gabriel Mountains, the San Diego Zoo said in a news release.

“The area, which was devastated by the Bobcat Fire over the last two months, is at risk of mudslides and debris flows that could have an extremely negative impact on the aquatic habitat for the turtles,” the zoo said.

Even after a fire has been extinguished, the habitat can suffer from “devastating ecological conditions,” Rich Burg, environmental program manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in the news release.

“In this case, we have a situation where there is little or no vegetation left on the slopes, impacting terrestrial habitat,” Burg said. “It is likely that there will be significant sediment flows into the West Fork of the San Gabriel River, which could fill in existing refugia pools and change water chemistry. This can negatively impact the pond turtle population.”

To help save the turtles, a team of biologists from numerous agencies and organizations stepped in, the zoo said, spending days trying to remove the turtles from a river before winter storms put the critters in danger.

The biologists located eight southwestern pond turtles in two weeks, the zoo said. They will be relocated to San Diego Zoo Global until they can return to their habitat.

“We have become increasingly concerned over the status of our native pond turtles,“ Ann Berkeley from the U.S. Forest Service said in the news release. “They are a small species with a great deal of charm, and their presence in our local creeks is important to maintaining the biodiversity in small waterways that are found throughout our Southern California mountains.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Freshwater turtles in the path of California wildfires rescued from destruction."