Tiny turtles face uncertain fate in Gaston County

The Catawba Lands Conservancy is completing a fund-raising campaign it hopes will raise $150,000 to buy land adjoining Jane's Meadow Bog in Gaston County, home to North Carolina's eastern-most population of bog turtles.

The conservancy said if it can buy the land then that will ensure it won’t be developed, and will preserve the watershed for the bog.

A sucking sound rose from the soggy surface with each step Sean Bloom took on Friday. Bloom, a biologist with the conservancy, used a wooden pole with a rounded end to gently probe below the surface of the meadow hoping to find one of the tiny turtles.

"What I'm hoping to feel is a light but solid thud which could indicate that I'm tapping on the top of a turtle shell," Bloom said.

Bog turtles, which are considered federally threatened, weigh less than four ounces and are North America's smallest turtles. They often live in colonies with no more than 20 turtles.

Populations of the turtles are split geographically into northern and southern groups. Southern bog turtles, which are fewer in number and are rare in the Piedmont, total about 6,000 across fewer than 100 sites, mostly in the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia.

This story was originally published June 29, 2018 at 4:37 PM.