Spotted turtles (clemmys guttata) have declined across their range and are of conservation concern throughout theunited states and canada

This federal Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service, funded under the State Wildlife Grants (CFDA 15.634) program, will enable the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with North Carolina State University and the Orianne Society, to undertake a suite of conservation projects focused on the spotted turtle, a species of greatest conservation need across its range. Key objectives include: identifying priority habitats, improving habitat quantity and quality, addressing data gaps on species distribution, establishing long-term demographic assessment sites, refining sampling protocols, providing technical assistance to landowners, and combating illegal take. The total award amount is $205,118, with a period of performance from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2026. The overarching goal is to increase spotted turtle population size and support healthy metapopulations across the southeastern U.S.

They have been identified as species of greatest conservation need (sgcn) in all 21STATES where they occur, are considered endangered by the iucn, and are being considered for federal listingunder the endangered species act (ESA), as amended. In response to these broad appraisals, a status assessmentand conservation plan were recently developed for the spotted turtle in the eastern united states. We propose toleverage the findings of this assessment and implement elements of the conservation plan by undertaking thefollowing projects with the overall goal of increasing population size and supporting healthy metapopulations ofspotted turtles and associated sgcn in the southeastern U.S., from florida to west virginia. To do this, we willseek to identify priority wetland and terrestrial habitats for spotted turtles in the southeastern U.S., improvetheir habitat quality and quantity, and improve awareness of and protection from illegal trade. We will addressdata gaps in southeastern U.S. Spotted turtle distribution through continued inter-state collaboration andresearch (objective 1), develop long-term demographic assessment sites to evaluate population viability in sixstates (objective 2), refine the standard sampling protocol to address detection challenges (objective 3),provide technical assistance to landowner partners and restore critical habitats (objectives 4 5), hold aninteragency workshop to combat illegal take of spotted turtles and other related freshwater turtle sgcn(objective 6), update and refine the conservation plan with data collected in this project (objective 7). Weanticipate that the results and analyses from this project and the updated conservation plan will providevaluable information for the states as they address the listing decision of the USFWS and enable them, the USFWS, and partners to improve populations across the eastern U.S.scdnr will participate in this multi-state competitive state wildlife grant by engaging with NC state universityand the orianne society to complete portions of the objectives listed above.