STAR REVUE THE AMAGANSETT
Are there really turtles crossing our roads?
by George Fiala
Possibly I don't get around as much as I should, but I haven't seen a live turtle walking around these parts in many years. What I do see are turtle crossing signs put up by The East Hampton Town Trustees. I was thinking that maybe these signs were nostalgic, reminding us of bygone days. So I decided to find out.
My first stop was the Amagansett Fire Department. The day I showed up there was one man buffing the floor. He looked at me kind of strangely, and more so when I blurted out my question.
"Do you ever get calls to rescue turtles?"
"No, no turtles up a tree or anything. We don't even do cats. We have no time for turtles."
I tried to continue the conversation and asked about my neighbor Gene who has been a long time volunteer. "Nope, he ain't here anymore. Came in one day, took all his stuff and left." Luckily for me, I saw a pesticide truck on the side of the driveway and started talking to Bud Pitts, owner of Naturally Ticked Off.
"Sure, I see plenty of turtles. Just today I picked one up and placed him on the other side of the road. At the intersection of Bandigo and Cranberry Hole Road"
"Cool, there still are turtles around here after all," I thought, knowing I now had a story.
He went on to tell me that of course there used to be more, but with more houses and less habitat you get less animals, and that includes turtles. He told me to seek out Larry Penny. Penny's name came up a few more times in my turtle quest, but I didn't get a chance to connect this time.
I did drive around to the address he provided, which was near the Devon Yacht Club. I looked around for a while but didn't see any animals at all.
I did find a construction crew laying the foundation of a new giant home, and tried to ask them, but nobody spoke English, so I drove on.
At this point I figured might go to the one place that I knew for sure would have information, the name on the turtle signs - the East Hampton Town Trustees. I looked it up and found they had an office on Bluff Road, on the way to Atlantic Beach.
They were open and I explained my quest to a nice young lady at the desk, after she got off the phone with some-
one who seemed to keep on talking. I didn't want to be a pest so I quickly asked my questions. She took my information and said the appropriate Trustee would get back to me soon.
That turned out to be Susan
McGrawI followed the GPS and actually passed right by, as I was looking for a more commercial looking establishment. It's actually Karen Testa's house, which is across from an orchard on a country road. I wandered in through the front door and found a house with giant black tubs with yellow covers in every room filled with turtles in various stages of health and age, with labels and charts, similar to a human hospital complete with operating rooms, post-op care and neonatal facilities.
Keber who, among her other duties is a member of the East Hampton Town Water Quality Technical Advisory Committee.
We spoke on the phone but we never met in person because she was quite busy with her son's upcoming wedding and a week's vacation to follow. She told me that it was she that created the turtle signs and had them placed wherever a turtle was found. She also sent me the poster for the upcoming Clam Festival. Susan is the chairperson of the festival and tells me it will be the best ever.
She said to seek out Karen Testa, who runs an organization in Jamesport dedicated to rescuing turtles. The next day I gassed up my silver 2000 Taurus and headed up to the North Fork to the Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons.
Ms. Testa graciously gave me her time despite an obvious state of busy and despite the fact that I didn't warn her in advance of my visit. I got a tour, which included meeting her medical techs, seeing newly hatched baby turtles, turtles with recovering wounds, incubators filled with turtle eggs rescued from wounded mother turtles, turtles that have to live in heated outdoor boxes (more on that in a bit), and finally, a stuffed two headed turtle that came to them alive, illustrating one of the results of environmental pollution that threatens all life.
Besides being gracious, Testa is highly passionate about her turtles. She told me that she studied biology in college and got a job with the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Refuge Center in Hampton Bays. She worked there a while but was frustrated in that they would not rescue turtles. "They had no room."
So she went on her own. Testa mentioned that she also is a licensed real estate broker, leaving me thinking that bills had to get paid somehow. But she told me that she does receive donations and grants which help keep the place going.