By Lara Fominoff @fomsy1 on Twitter

Questions raised about Lethbridge City ride-on mowers after turtles crushed to death

Jun 26, 2017 | 4:05 PM

LETHBRIDGE – An Ecological Consultant is raising a red flag about how the clearing of wide swaths of brush in Lethbridge’s nature reserves and wetlands could be affecting local wildlife.
 
Ryan Heavy Head says over the weekend he recieved some pictures from a local hiker, of turtles that were found crushed to death in the Elizabeth Hall Wetlands. The hiker wanted to know what could have killed them.
 
“To me, it looked like somebody just stomped the turtle on the back. So that was my immediate assumption. A malicious, purposeful attack on the turtles.”
 
Heavy Head then notified Fish and Wildlife, the City of Lethbridge Bylaw office, and consulted with someone from the Helen Schuler Nature Centre about what may have happened.
 
“I asked John Nightingale to go see if he could check it out, because I was so far away from town. So he went down there and looked at the scene, and immediately  he recognized that it was the turtles had been hit by lawnmowers. It was right in the swath of the mower.”
 
And this is something that he says Nightingale has petitioned the City about.
 
“We’ve been looking at the protocol for summer mowing in the nature parks for years,” Heavy Head explains. “Because we’ve seen a lot of snakes get hit, too. Lots of snakes get butchered by these mowers. And these are nature parks. Places where we bring the snakes to, so they’ll be protected. And the turtles are protected wildlife as well. “
 
Heavy Head adds that this is the time of year the turtles come up onto the banks to lay their eggs, so they’re difficult to see.
 
“It’s not the right time to be mowing unless you have a protocol that’s gonna allow you to make sure that you avoid any wildlife that’s in the way.”
 
But David Ellis, Parks Manager with the City of Lethbridge says while he was extremely upset to see the turtles killed, he’s not convinced the mowers had anything to do with their deaths.
 
“From the pictures I’ve seen, and from going down and looking at the turtles, it doesn’t seem very likely. A mower chops. These were crushed. A mower picks things up and either shoots them out, or crushes them. These were just crushed. Not shredded or chopped up.”
 
But Ellis does admit the mowers were working in that area on Friday (June 23), and perhaps the turtles were left exposed after the grass was cut down.
 
“It almost looks to me, like someone intentionally crushed them. It’s possible they got run over by a tire of a mower, but they didn’t go through the lawn mower.”
 
He says it’s common practice for the City to cut a swath next to the pathways in the area, so people are more comfortable walking on them, and that has been the practice for 30 years, but they are looking for new ways to prevent wildlife in the area from being hurt or killed any time of year. That includes having someone walk in front of the mowers to make sure no wildlife is in its path.