PHOTOS COURTESY OF MASS AUDUBON’S WELLFLEET BAY WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
Hatchlings from Terrapin Cove in Eastham.
EASTHAM – Terrapin Cove, which is the most significant upland nesting habitat for diamondback terrapins in Eastham, will now be protected.
The town purchased the 1.6 acres on the edge of the Herring River salt marsh from Steve Raphaelson with help from town meeting voters, the Eastham Conservation Foundation, the Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts and Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.
Eastham resident Bill Allan has led an effort to protect the species, which is listed as threatened in Massachusetts. The effort has been helped by the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and its volunteers since 2003.
The parcel of land could have been sold as two house lots but Allan said the property owners wanted to protect the terrapins.
“If there’s a conservation organization willing to buy it, they were willing to sell to preserve it,” Allan said.
In 2003, the main effort was to find out where the species was nesting and one of the areas found was on the private lot now known as Terrapin Cove.
Allan said he had a driveway conversation with the homeowner, Raphaelson’s father Dave, to discuss getting access to the property to protect the nesting grounds.
A view of Terrapin Cove in Eastham.
“He gave me full latitude to do whatever was necessary to create a good nesting habitat on that lot,” Allan said.
The diamondback terrapins live along coastal habitats from Cape Cod to the southern tip of Florida and along the Gulf Coast. The species is listed as endangered in Rhode Island.
They mate in early spring and clutches of eggs, usually between 4 and 22, are laid in sand dunes in early summer. The eggs usually hatch in late summer or early fall.
“They really need open, sunny areas, hopefully, adjacent to the marsh so they don’t have to cross roads,” Allan said. “And that kind of habitat is at a premium.”
Allan said there has been so much development and roads installed that the turtles often have to cross roads to get to nesting areas.
Steve Raphaelson, left, and Bill Allan at the Terrapin Cove celebration.
“Road kill is a big problem,” Allan said. “There’s so few that make it to adulthood that when we knock them off on the roads it really causes the population to crash and that’s what was happening in Eastham.”
Allan said a lot of adult females were not surviving which was causing a lack of hatchlings.
Terrapin Cove hosted 35 nests this year producing 348 young. Allan believes the land may have the capacity to support double that number of nests.
Eastham will now own the land and Mass Audubon and the Eastham Conservation Foundation co-hold a permanent conservation restriction.
The Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary will manage the property as diamondback terrapin nesting habitat.
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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