Category: Arb News

A Walk and Talk with Mister Gary Wagenbach. Last week the Arb Naturalists explored Big Woods State Park. Big Woods nests near Nerstrand, Minnesota, about ten miles south of Northfield. The 2,882 acres of parkland primarily consist of mature upland forest with sugar maple, basswood, ironwood, red oak, and bur oak

The Arb just had a thoroughly action-packed week.  Last Friday, your arb naturalists spotted a rare wood turtle (Glyptemys insculpta) on the banks of the Cannon.  The first sightings of these turtles occurred in the late nineties, with just six recorded between 1996 and 1999.  We had seen none since, until this one, a young, approximately eight-year-old female. If unfamiliar with these elusive beasts, you can begin picturing them from their name, for they look like carved wood, and inhabit woods along rivers.  Wood turtles can solve mazes as well as rats, and this remarkable intelligence has made them desirable in experiments and as pets.  The combination of this use and habitat degradation has made wood turtles a threatened species in Minnesota.  Their continued presence in the Arb bodes well for the Arb’s success as an ecological restoration project.