Raising awareness in defence of turtles on Can-Amera Parkway

For the past 15 years, Kara Klypycz has lived in her house backing onto the Portuguese Swamp in Cambridge, however, it wasn’t until five years ago that she began to notice turtles in the area.

Unbeknown to her at the time, this observation would lead to her becoming a turtle protector and founder of the Cambridge Turtle Conservation Association (CTCA).

Through her petitions to Cambridge city council, Klypycz has become a saviour for turtles in Cambridge as the city has now installed turtle crossing signs on Can-Amera Parkway.

“It’s doing what it’s supposed to do which is bring it to your attention,” said Klypycz, speaking of the recently installed signage. 

Cutting through a wetland, Can-Amera Parkway is a busy street with speeds of 70 kilometres per hour and acts as a potentially fatal crossing for wildlife that moves between the ponds on either side of the roadway.

Klypycz’s trigger point to get signage installed began in June of 2020 when she was out for a jog on Can-Amera Parkway that was abruptly cut short when she witnessed a large snapping turtle get seriously injured, including a split shell, when it was struck by a vehicle.

At the start of her jog, she had seen this same turtle sitting in the grass on the roadway’s boulevard laying her eggs.

“I came in touch with Turtle Conservation Ontario and they directed me to a local vet and I took the turtle there and dropped her off,” said Klypycz. “At that point I thought we should have turtle crossing signs.”

Unfortunately, this was only one incident that summer that involved Klypycz picking up a turtle from the road and saving countless other turtles as they crossed Can-Amera Parkway.

As the winter months lead to turtles hibernating, the addition of new signage placed around the pond indicating no swimming or skating was to occur within the pond sparked a renewed passion inside Klypycz.

“There was a day in February where they came around and just put up all these posts, do not enter, no skating and no swimming and they went up everywhere,” said Klypycz. “So I called the city the day the signs went up around the pond and said hey there are turtles here, can we have signs about turtles.”

Reaching out to different departments within the municipality, Klypycz was initially greeted with a favourable response, however, in the end, she said she was met with a hard no, even after offering to pay out of pocket for the signs.

“We went back and forth and I got a hard no,” said Klypycz.

Unsatisfied with the initial response, Klypycz reached out to neighbouring Wellington County officials to inquire about the process needed to get the installation of the turtle crossings signs she had seen throughout the county.

“Originally when I did my research on how Wellington County got their signs and what they did one of the members that presented to council suggested that I create my own group just out of interest of people that are willing to be involved be active, and have some interest in turtle conservation,” said Klypycz.

The next step for Klypycz was to send emails to Cambridge regional councillor Helen Jowett and city councillor Nicholas Ermet who in turn told her they would bring forward the issue to council.

The regional request was passed to Thomas Schmidt, the region’s commissioner of transportation and environmental services.

And so the journey that began on June 10, 2020, and was reinitiated this past February came to a close on May 17 when Klypycz was out for her daily jog when she noticed two signs were up along Can-Amera Parkway warning motorists they were entering into a turtle crossing area.

Klypycz has been in frequent contact with rare Charitable Research Reserve, an urban land trust and environmental institute in Waterloo Region/Wellington, and said CTCA will be working with rare for the 2022 turtle nesting season.

“Having accomplished my task, which was getting the sings up, (we will be) keeping the group open because we are looking for people to be turtle nesting monitors for rare next year and they are looking for volunteers to work with the hatchery,” said Klypycz.

More information about rare can be found at: https://raresites.org/