Back Thanks to MIke and Maureen Matusewic for this sighting and pictures.
Stacy Rowe
Department of Natural Resources
Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation
Stacy,
Thank you for your responses to past Email inquiries, your responses are appreciated although disappointing.
Do to the fact that another wood turtle has been sighted, photographed (with the date on a current newspaper under the turtle, please let me know if Gtac has applied for an Incidental Take Permit?
Also I am interested in learning how many “Incidental Take Permits” are issued by your office yearly and to whom they are issued. How may I locate this information?
If you do not have a “certified reviewer” record of wood turtles, it is very hard for many of us to accept your statement: “I can assure you though, that the department takes the health of its endangered and threatened species seriously, and that potential impacts will be considered throughout the process” as factual due to the way the wood turtle is being treated? So the question is when does this process begin?
Is it possible to for a certified reviewer to enter the area as the forest is under the 600-foot control of Gtac?
It seems your position is you and your office will do nothing because wood turtles don’t really deserve consideration in today’s DNR?
You stated in your previous correspondence that “under usual procdures” ER reviews are not released to the public. The mine proposal is certainly not “usual” so how can we go about getting the ER reports released?
Thanks
Frank K. Koehn