SPRINGFIELD, Mass. As part of its ongoing efforts to provide safe, reliable electric service, Eversource hosted its annual turtle protection program – Turtle-Palooza! – to strengthen its workers' expertise protecting endangered turtles that call its rights-of-way home. 

 

With the support of wildlife experts and a specially trained turtle-sniffing dog, workers spent a full day in Agawam practicing spotting and safely relocating the turtles a few hundred feet away from areas where mowing or other work is happening.

 

"Part of our responsibility in delivering safe, reliable electricity to our customers is caring for the land we manage throughout our service territory, and that includes preserving resilient ecosystems like the wildlife habitats within our rights-of-way," said Eversource Manager of Licensing and Permitting Matthew Waldrip. "This annual conservation program is another example of those efforts, and by training our crews how to search for and carefully relocate turtles before any heavy equipment is moved into their habitats, we can continue to support the protected species that live near our power lines while balancing the need for reliable electric service."

                                                                     

Dozens of Eversource employees and contractors were joined by experts from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife to learn how to track protected species like the Eastern Box turtles that inhabit the low-lying areas beneath the company's electric transmission lines. Seventeen turtles were located in the right-of-way over the course of the morning.

 

"The vegetation management carried out on utility rights-of-way can actually create and maintain important habitat for many of the Commonwealth's rare species, such as the Eastern box turtle," said Assistant Director of MassWildlife's Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program Jesse Leddick. "Eversource's annual training provides a valuable opportunity to ensure that crews know how to identify suitable turtle habitat, search for these animals, and safely relocate them when needed. We're proud to partner with Eversource on efforts like this that balance energy infrastructure needs with proactive wildlife conservation."