Pat’s Wildways: Crooked River State Park

If you are looking for another interesting day trip from Amelia Island, it’s worth a drive to St. Marys, just to our north. Although Bucko and I have been up this way many times before, recently we took a little jog off the main road and landed at Crooked River State Park. I can’t believe it is the first time I’ve been there, but I’m sure it won’t be my last, now that we have investigated its charms.

This Georgia State Park covers 500 acres of forests, palmettos, marshes and scrub vegetation on a point of land abutting the St. Marys River. There are hiking trails, camping areas, cabins, a boat ramp, a gift shop, a nature center, a bait shop and even, believe it or not, a miniature golf course. Bucko and I weren’t interested in hiking or fishing or putting a boat in the water, but we still found plenty to do.

It was interesting to see the shoreline erosion from a parking lot above an area that reminds me of Boneyard Beach on Big Talbot Island. In both places, increasing storms and wave action over the years have crumpled some of the high bankside along with the trees that once stood proudly. Now, these trees have fallen on the lower beach, a graveyard of sorts. One poor gopher tortoise is soon to be dumped into the water, too, if it doesn’t change its burrow, which is at the edge of the eroded bankside – here’s hoping it’s getting ready to relocate before this happens.

And this started my chelonian experiences for the day. At one point, we wandered into the nature center, not really expecting much, but we were pleasantly surprised. A park ranger was there at a desk in a room filled with terrariums and aquarium tanks with various other natural artifacts scattered about. I was immediately drawn to a tank containing a diamondback terrapin. These small turtles inhabit our salt marshes but are rarely seen since most people don’t walk around in these areas. Diamondback terrapin turtles are beautifully marked, a wonder to behold. And this particular one was as curious about me as I was about it. As I moved my finger back and forth on the glass the turtle followed it, a fun game for us both. The ranger, Tristen, watched with amusement. She told us that children loved to do this too. I guess I will always be a child at heart.

Then my gaze settled on the next aquarium over where two other turtles lived. And one was a red-eared slider! So what, you might say? Well for me this was another fun way to stay in touch with my Serbian biodiversity team, after our project was over. Our report included a section on exotic invasive species, a common biodiversity threat the world over. And one of the culprits in Serbia is none other than the North American red-eared slider. These turtles are raised in Florida and elsewhere for the pet trade and they are exported all over the world. These baby quarter-sized turtles make great pets while they are small but when they outgrow their little tank, now what? The simplest solution, but not the best one for the turtle or the environment, is just to release it into any nearby freshwater body. And in Belgrade, Serbia, the Danube River is there, perfect, right? Well, not so much. It turns out our little North American turtles are very adaptable to most water bodies, they reproduce at a faster rate than many other species and they aggressively take over feeding areas and basking sites, crowding out the natives. So I asked Ranger Tristin if she would take the turtle out of the tank so I could photograph it for my friends in Serbia and she happily obliged. Perfect.

It turns out that red-eared slider turtles are listed among the top invasive vertebrate species in the world, and many areas where they have been released are seeing the consequences as their native turtle species’ populations decline and the red-eared sliders take over. Even here in Florida, they are considered invasive since they outcompete our native slider turtle, the yellow-bellied slider that is a close cousin.

So that’s how Bucko and I spent our couple of hours at Crooked River State Park, but I’m sure you will find other things interesting to do there as well. Give it a try. It’s right up the road. What’s to lose?

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com