26-03-2025
Wildlife rehabilitators rescue stranded turtles at Berks lake
Amanda Leyden carefully probed through the layers of silt lining the banks of Crystal Lake, looking for hibernating turtles.
Leyden, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and clinic director of Aark Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center, Chalfont, Bucks County, spent much of Friday and Saturday searching the dry lakebed in Carsonia Park.
The 27-acre property in Exeter and Lower Alsace townships is owned by the Mount Penn Borough Municipal Authority, which harnesses water from the site to supply about 30,000 households in Mount Penn, St. Lawrence, Lower Alsace and part of Exeter.
The 10-acre lake recently was drained by the authority as part of a nearly $700,000 state and federal grant-funded project aimed at improving water quality for residents of the Antietam Valley.
The project resulted in the accidental loss of about 100 fish and 30 or more turtles.
Leyden was on site last week to rescue any remaining aquatic reptiles.
She was joined by Nick Brewster, Aark's director of education, and several volunteers, including Lori Lilley of Mount Penn.
Lilley, a self-described wildlife lover, reached out to the nonprofit center after seeing dead turtles and fish on the dry lakebed in videos posted on social media.
With the authority's permission, the crew pulled on their waders and got to work.
'Even if I save one turtle, it will make me happy,' Lilley said.
By early afternoon Saturday, they had found three alive.
Heavy equipment spreads silt from Crystal Lake at Carsonia Park onto af former baseball field near the lake. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
The lake restoration project, begun in November, was designed by Liberty Environmental of Reading in consultation with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
It includes work to protect underground aquifers, including the removal of accumulated sediment and debris from the lake bottom and installation of water quality units.
It also includes a series of storm-sewer management measures, including planted swales, a sediment catcher, repairs and modifications to the lake spillway and the planting of native species to reduce shoreline erosion.
The plan called for measures to preserve the aquatic life disrupted by the construction, said Joseph Boyle, chairman of the authority.
Hampered by delays
Had lowering of the lake started on schedule, he said, few, if any, animal lives would have been lost.
Work was set to begin last summer but was delayed, Boyle said.
Then, before construction could begin, Hurricane Helene hit on Sept. 26, causing destruction and flooding across the southeastern U.S. where the contractor, Flyway Excavation, Mount Joy, Lancaster County, was working.
The company, which specializes in environmental work, was chosen from five bidders and was highly recommended by area conservation groups, he noted.
The hurricane pushed the start date to October and then to November, Boyle said.
'So now we're getting into the winter months,' he said.
Heavy equipment spreads silt from Crystal Lake at Carsonia Park in an area that will be planted as a pollinator garden. (BILL UHRICH/READING EAGLE)
As the water was lowered, hundreds of fish were netted and relocated to a private pond, the only option after authorities refused to permit their release into the Schuylkill River or other publicly owned bodies of water, he said.
About 15 turtles were recovered and moved to the banks of Antietam Creek.
Then it got cold. The freezing temperatures interrupted the rescue effort, stranding and trapping the remaining fish and turtles in the ice and mud.
Had the project started on schedule, Brewster said, the turtles would not have been in hibernation, and they would have followed the water as it receded to a small, spring-fed area about 10 feet deep.
The problem, he said, is that turtles are built for swimming, not walking. With much of the lakebed now only mud, they are forced to walk to the remaining water. Many get stuck in the mud or exhaust themselves from the effort and die, he said.
Much of what looks like mud on the lakebed is actually sediment and decaying excrement, Boyle said.
In the last 40 years, he said, the lake has been heavily damaged by storm water runoff, pollution from non-native migratory geese, litter and other contaminants. Removal of sediment from the lake bottom will return its depth to about 10 feet from the current reduced depth of about 3 feet, he said. The harvested sediment will be used to build up a section of the lake's east end to form a wetland area that will strain storm water flow.
Boyle, who teaches earth sciences and global geography at Daniel Boone High School, said the project's objective includes source-water protection and best practices for storm water management and restoration of the lake and wetlands habitat. The restored habitat is expected to encourage native plant and animal species and become a resource for wildlife watching and education, he said.
Plans are to restock the lake with native fish in summer 2026.
Native turtles, other reptiles and amphibians should naturally repopulate with time, he said.
Leyden said there could still be live turtles in the mud.
'We are hoping as the weather warms, they will make their way out,' she said.
State law requires that any reptiles rescued by the group be held at the rehab center until May 1, she said.
