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Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project

2010 New Field Project Coordinator

Update 2010's New

 Field Project Coordinator

JERRY NOVAK

Jerry Novak has been a volunteer for the Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project for almost 15 years. Many people are aware of the zoos participation in the head-starting program but few are aware of the field researchers, and what  they do to provide the zoo with the hatchling to head start.

Volunteers wade chest deep in the ponds to check traps for turtles so they can weight and measure their growth. They also do telemetry tracking of females to collect data about the nesting sites and to collect eggs for the head-starting program back at the zoo.   

After Frank and Kate Slavens announced their retirement from the project that they started almost twenty years earlier, Jerry Novak was officially selected as the new “Field Project Coordinator” on the WPTRP. When I asked Jerry about the project he said that this year we will be re-focusing on habitat reconstruction and predator (bullfrog) control. When I asked him about his new position he said he was proud to be working with Washington state Fish & Wildlife and both the Oregon and Woodland Park Zoo’s.