Ballard High School graduate and member of Woodland Park Zoo Corps Garrett Brenden got to experience the full cycle of a critical species recovery project as he helped Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the zoo release 19 western pond turtles back to the wild July 29 at a wildlife refuge site in Pierce County.

“This release gives us hope and aspiration that the native population of pond turtles can be restored to its natural range throughout the state if conservation projects like this continue to nurture and grow the turtles to give them a head start over invasive species and predators,” Brenden, who graduated this year from Ballard High School, said in a Woodland Park Zoo press release.

In addition to the 19 turtles released in Pierce County, 57 were released on the Kitsap Peninsula and 13 in the Columbia River Gorge.

Next year will mark the 20-year anniversary of the Western Pond Turtle Recovery Project. The reintroduction of the endangered western pond turtles is part of a long-term, collaborative effort among Woodland Park Zoo, Oregon Zoo, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help prevent the extinction of the species, according to the zoo press release.

The 10-month-old turtles, which currently weigh between 3 and 4 ounces apiece, were collected last fall from the wild as hatchlings and head started at the zoo to give them an edge on surviving in the wild, according to the press release.

“We grow the turtles up throughout the winter with a regular diet of fish, worms and other high-protein items," Mark Myers, zoo curator, said in the press release. "In essence, it’s summer year round for the turtles since they are kept in warmer temperatures and don’t have to hibernate. By summer, the juveniles are almost as big as 3-year-old turtles would be that grew up in the wild. Their advanced size helps improve their chance of survival in the wild.”

Brenden has participated in Woodland Park’s Zoo Corps teen program since 2008. This summer, he assisted the zoo with day-to-day care of the head start turtles and tracked western pond turtles in the field under the guidance of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists.

Zoo Corps is Woodland Park Zoo’s teen volunteer program that offers high school students a unique opportunity to develop work and leadership skills, increase their knowledge of animals and their habitats, build confidence and expand their conservation awareness in a supportive, fun learning environment, according to the zoo's press release.

Once common from Baja, Calif., to Puget Sound, including the Columbia River Gorge, western pond turtles were virtually wiped out due to loss of habitat, disease and predation by non-native species, such as bullfrogs and large-mouth bass, according to the press release. They were on the verge of extinction in Washington in 1990, with only a mere 150 turtles left in the wild.

To protect baby turtles from the large mouths of bullfrogs, recovery workers take to the field each year. Under the supervision of western pond turtle biologists, transmitters are attached to the adult females and the turtles are monitored every two hours during the nesting season to determine their nesting sites. The nests are protected with wire “exclosure” cages to help prevent predators from eating the eggs. Once the eggs hatch in the fall, young turtles about the size of a quarter are collected and taken to Woodland Park Zoo, where they can grow safely away from predators, according to the press release.

The goals of the program are to re-establish self-sustaining populations in Puget Sound and the Columbia River Gorge regions and for enough young turtles from wild nests to survive without the need to head start them in zoos, according to the press release.

Scientists tracking the released turtles estimate that 95 percent of the turtles released back into the Columbia River Gorge have survived, and nearly all of the turtles released back in Pierce and Mason counties have survived. The turtle population is now approximately 1,500, according to the zoo press release.