Interns track Blanding's Turtles in Sudbury's Junction Creek

The Junction Creek Stewardship Committee has a new way of tracking a threatened species of turtles.

The group has hired two summer interns to monitor Blanding's Turtles in Sudbury's Junction Creek.

• Listen to the interview on Sudbury's Morning North radio show

One of those interns, Dominique Gagnon, said she'll be studying the habitats of the reptiles.

We'll be doing this in a variety of ways through radio telemetry for the turtles that we've already tagged last summer, as well as visual surveys, she said.

Visual surveys are very important in another way for community outreach. So that's how we have most of our sightings reported.

For those who spot a Blanding's Turtle in Junction Creek, the stewardship committee is asking them to avoid handling the animal.

Instead, people are asked to take a picture and send it to sarah@junctioncreek.com.

Sightings can also be called in to the committee by phone.

We can't be everywhere at once. So [if people] let us know where they see a turtle, it helps us and we can go back in and see what kind of habitat it was [and] see if we can spot another turtle, Gagnon said.

More Blanding's Turtles have begun to call Sudbury's Junction Creek home, since restoration efforts began 15 years ago.