TURTLE SIGN INVENTORY AND EVALUATION PROJECT

Read more about the project at Brock News, at the Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre Blog and in The Orchid (read the October edition as a pdf, 2.3mb).

Eco-Kare in cooperation with the Ontario Road Ecology Group and other partners is creating an inventory of the approximately 700 turtle crossing signs in Ontario to determine where and how they are placed in the landscape. The project is funded by the 2011 Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) Highway Infrastructure Innovation Funding Program (HIIFP).

We need citizen scientists, volunteers, and field technicians to help us collect the information. If you encounter a turtle crossing sign, please use the form below to obtain location data as well as other information related to the sign.

Ideally, we would like GPSed location data at the sign location in addition to a described location.

If your agency has collected data on signs in electronic format (eg Word or Excel), please e-mail the information to .

If you prefer, you can submit information on a hardcopy datasheet (52K pdf) for use in the field.

Thank you for contributing to this project.

Your name
Your e-mail (or other contact info)
Can we contact you for follow-up information?	Yes No
Your institutional affiliation (if any)
Date you encountered the sign (not necessarily the date you're submitting this form)	2011  Select month January February March April May June July August September October November December  Select day 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
A turtle crossing sign can appear on its own, or paired -- that is, one sign on each side of a road, up to ~4km apart from each other. If signs are paired, please submit a separate form for each sign.
Is the sign paired?	Yes No Unknown
Theft rate	Unknown Stolen and replaced Stolen but not replaced
Type of sign observed (click the button beneath a sign) Aerial Side Mohawk Ojibway
Direction sign is facing (N, S, E, W, NW, NE, SW or SE)
Habitat where sign is found (tick more than one if required; if signs are paired then describe habitat between signs)	Forested wetland  Open water wetland  Stream or river  Mixed forest  Coniferous forest  Deciduous forest  Old meadow field  Residential  Urban built-up  Agricultural
Road (name or number)
Road type	Urban arterial Rural highway County road Dirt or gravel road Highway
Region (county or township)
Distance from landmark (eg, closest cross-street or river)
X/Y coordinates (use lat and long, or UTM civeast civnorth)
Datum (NAD83, NAD27, WGS84, or specify other)
Source (GPS, Google Earth, GIS, or specify other)
Did you or your institution set up this sign?	Yes No
If you or your institution did not set up the sign, do you know who did?
Comments and additional information (eg, photographs, turtle activity seen in habitat or on road, turtles seen alive or dead on road)
(Questions? Please directly.)