Who are Turtle Guardians?

Prevention is Powerful

A Charity Dedicated to Saving Turtles and Protecting Habitats

What We Do

Who We Are

Started in 2007 as a grassroots project, and founded as a charity in 2012, we are dedicated to empowering people. Turtle Guardians is all about prevention. We work to:

Develop Skills: We train people across communities in Canada and the USA to save turtles. Skills include turtle ID, biology, behaviour, threats, recovery needs, data capture standards and practices, and also codes of conduct.
Support Local Leadership: quarterback zone leaders to recruit volunteers and build capacity for action
Research: We work to fill knowledge gaps in support of the science of recovery; from population ecology, behaviours and emerging threats. We outline research scopes, gather data, and work in partnership to assess trends, analyze results, and provide best management practices and recommendations. We also provide training to provincial police, road crews, and practitioners.
Interventions: We recruit volunteers to be frontliners through road patrols and on the ground help for turtles in jeopardy.
Mitigation: We design, test, map, and install innovative ecopassage systems. We also support population recruitment through excavation, incubation and release.
Education: We provide hands on education to kids of all ages through camps, curriculums and presentations.

Turtle Guardians are people who care about saving turtles! They include people from all walks of life:

Volunteers: People dedicated to saving turtles through seasonal, regular, or on-call volunteering. From Emergency Responders, to Road Researchers, volunteers provide direct threat reduction and help to turtles, while collecting important data.
Biologists and Experts: the organization and volunteers are supported by biologists, GIS specialists, and also engineers, trained in recovery science.
Kids: Next generation turtle experts who learn about herpetology and recovery work through camps and curriculums, and support recovery through art, community presentations, and volunteering with their families
Zone Leaders: Community leaders in areas across Canada and the US, who are support by TG, but lead local efforts to save turtles.
Partners: We work with many amazing partners to advance turtle recovery, from small community groups, to larger organizations. .