by Leah Cass
Looking out over a meadowscape you’ll notice tall grasses waving in the wind and colorful flowers buzzing with life. Dragonflies, bees, and butterflies fly overhead and birds perch watchfully in the grass. What you are less likely to see, however, hidden between clump grasses or in dense forb patches, is a more elusive meadow resident: the eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina).
Box Turtle Biology
Box turtles are medium-sized dome-shaped turtles with unique brown and yellow patterns on the scutes of their carapace (back shell). Box turtles are the most terrestrial species of turtle in the northeastern United States, spending much of their lives in meadow or shrub-dominated habitat and traveling further from water sources than any other native turtle species. These turtles are omnivorous, eating plant matter and fungi but also insects, slugs, snails, and earthworms. Meadows, therefore, afford them both cover and protection due to the density of vegetation but also abundant food resources and foraging opportunity.
Box turtles, like many turtle species, are long-lived, often reaching ages of over 50 years old in the wild. They also mature slowly and typically do not reach sexual maturity until ages 5-10. Once reproductively active, female box turtles will nest in the spring, typically in the months of May or June. When nesting, the female turtle will seek out an area of dry, sandy soil where she will dig a small hole in which she will usually deposit four to five eggs.
Though box turtles have the capacity to live long lives in the wild and lack major predators in adulthood, like many native turtle species, they have suffered population declines in the northeastern United States and are ranked as species of special concern by several states including New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
An adult male box turtle stands on a rock with a meadowscape in the background. Photo by Leah Cass, 2024.
Box Turtles in Peril
There have been many causes of decline for turtle populations in this region, with the most prominent of them relating to habitat destruction and fragmentation. Destruction of turtle habitat due to widespread development has decreased the amount of area available for turtles to live.
Furthermore, when female turtles nest in the spring, fragmentation increases the risk that they will need to cross a road and risk a vehicle collision in order to travel from their core habitat patch to a suitable nesting area. Additionally, the dominance of suburban neighborhoods around turtle habitat has allowed populations of mesocarnivores like skunks (Mephitis mephitis) and raccoons (Procyon lotor), highly successful predators of turtle nests, to thrive, which has drastically decreased turtle reproductive success.
Given the negative impacts that habitat fragmentation and destruction have had on this vulnerable species, the management of meadow habitat with the goal of supporting box turtle populations has become a high conservation priority for land managers whose properties have an active turtle population.
Broken egg shells scattered around a predated turtle nest. Photo by Leah Cass, 2023.
Managing Meadows to Promote Turtle Success
Meadow habitat in particular requires regular maintenance and management to prevent succession to forest and to keep invasive plant populations at bay. This type of management is critical for supporting turtles as it ensures the continued availability of meadow areas. However, methods for maintaining and managing meadows can also place turtle populations at risk if not carefully scheduled.
Ideally, mowing to maintain meadowland should be done when turtles are inactive and therefore not at risk of mower collisions. Box turtles enter brumation—a state similar to hibernation—when temperatures begin to drop in the late fall and do not reemerge until temperatures begin increasing in the spring. Box turtles generally spend brumation buried underground although other semi-terrestrial turtle species like the wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) will return to streams to overwinter in the banks. Thus, the period from November 15 to March 15 is typically a safe time to mow meadow areas as you can be confident that turtles are not active on the landscape.
For many land managers, there is often more than one management goal for an area and multiple management goals can sometimes have contradictory management needs. For example, protecting turtle populations may be one management goal for a particular site where land managers are also focused on removing invasive species, expanding native floral diversity, and promoting diversity of invertebrates.
A box turtle partially buried in preparation for brumation. Photo by Yajaira Ramos, 2024.
Strategies for Balancing Management Goals
In these cases, more creative management solutions may be needed to ensure that risks to turtles are minimized while working towards the achievement of multiple conservation goals on the landscape.
For example, promoting invertebrate diversity often involves leaving grasses standing throughout the winter as larvae can be laid within the stems and will not develop properly if mowing occurs during that time period. In these cases, it is best to mow on a rotational schedule and avoid mowing the entire meadow area each year. Splitting an area into management units and mowing sections on alternate years (or even mowing every three years if encroachment of woody plants isn’t a primary management concern on your landscape) can ensure that despite prioritizing turtle conservation in the selection of mowing season (winter), the needs of other species are still provided for because some vegetation will remain standing though all seasons.
The most significant management conflicts occur when turtle habitat must be mowed during the spring or summer seasons. This situation commonly occurs in grasslands that are used for hay production as hay must be cut in mid-summer to maximize nutritional value for livestock. However, hayfields can provide suitable habitat to sensitive species like turtles that are very vulnerable to mowing during the active season.
In these cases, there are still adjustments that can be made to mowing practices to help protect turtles. The mower head, blade height, and directionality of mowing can all have impacts on the ability of animals to survive or escape an interaction with a mower.
First, the type of mower head used can have a major impact on the ability of wildlife to escape a mowing event. Flail head mowers are often promoted for their ability to break up vegetation and therefore speed decomposition. However, they also use a guide bar that drags along the ground and prevents any chance of escape should the mower encounter an animal. According to the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, sickle-bar mowers tend to offer turtles the best chance of survival.
The height of the mower blade off the ground can also make an impact on how likely wildlife is to survive. Raising the blade to a height of at least seven inches makes it easier to avoid hitting wildlife with mower blades. This also decreases the likelihood of causing damage to the mower blade. However, mower wheels will always present a risk.
Lastly, directionality of mowing can make a major impact as turtles are often most likely to be found along the edge of a field. Therefore, mowing a field from the center outward in concentric circles provides animals in the edge area the most warning time and pushes them outwards towards the edge of the field as they try to escape, rather than trapping them closer and closer to the center as you mow from the outer edge inward. Surveying the edges of fields manually before mowing may allow land managers to locate and move turtles before mowing occurs as well.
An example of a meadow divided by management units. The left management unit was not mowed this year. The right management unit was mowed in 2024. Areas are mowed in alternate years so that standing vegetation is always available as habitat. Photo by Leah Cass, 2024.
Case Study: Turtle Conservation in Meadow Management at the Westchester County Parks
Located in New York State just north of New York City, the Westchester County Parks is responsible for the management of over 18,000 acres of parkland, more than 300 acres of which is meadowland.
We endeavor to take an adaptive and multi-faceted approach to meadow management that focuses on supporting and expanding the native biodiversity of each site, while making adjustments to our management goals as the needs of focal species at each site develop overtime. Turtle conservation has emerged as a high meadow management priority.
In order to develop truly adaptive meadow management strategies, we’ve begun to research and monitor localized habitat use of turtles within our meadows via radio telemetry. Radio telemetry involves the attachment of a radio transmitter to the turtle’s carapace. The transmitter emits a beep on a specific frequency that the researcher can tune into with a hand-held radio and antenna. The antenna used is directional, meaning the beeping will get louder when pointed towards the turtle and can therefore be used to relocate individual turtles.
Through the regular tracking of turtles in our populations, we’ve begun gathering information on habitat preferences of turtles, the frequency of road crossings our turtles are making, their proximity to trails, and the speed at which they disperse into main meadow areas post-brumation.
While our monitoring remains in progress, our ability to adapt management plans to the observed needs of turtle populations in our meadows has already greatly improved. Tracking the turtles has allowed us to designate management units as priority turtle areas, identify areas where management goals are most likely to contradict so that we can focus extra effort on balancing the needs of multiple species, and select areas that could benefit from habitat restoration.
Westchester County Parks staff track turtles via radio telemetry in a meadow. Photo by Leah Cass, 2024.
Looking Forward
Given the vulnerability of native turtles in our region, it is up to land managers across the northeast to ensure that properties being used as turtle habitat are managed appropriately for the long-term survival of the species. Without human consideration of the needs of turtles when making land management decisions in meadow habitats, turtle populations will likely continue to decline.
Fortunately, we currently have a unique opportunity to help support these vulnerable reptiles as we learn more about the challenges facing their populations and their habitat use needs. As park managers, land trusts, homeowners, and conservationists, the power to protect box turtles is in our hands. If we take care to manage habitat according to the needs of turtles today, we can all be part of ensuring their continued persistence in our region for generations.
A hatchling box turtle, hope for the future of the species. Photo by Leah Cass, 2024.
Leah Cass is the Curator of Natural Resources for the Westchester County Parks in the Conservation Division. Leah’s work is focused on natural resource management planning, invasive species management, and rare species recovery. Leah also oversees Westchester County Parks’ turtle conservation initiative which includes research and monitoring of terrestrial turtle populations in meadow environments. Before joining the Westchester County Parks in 2021, Leah worked as an intern for a variety of conservation organizations including the Ecological Society of America, Conservation International, and the Mianus River Gorge Preserve. Leah holds a degree in biology from George Washington University and a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Pace University (expected May 2025).
