What he saw horrified John Chapman and, quite frankly, probably ruined his Fourth of July weekend.

Smack in the middle of the road, flattened right across the double-yellow center line, was the carcass of a wood turtle.

"They probably didn't know what species they were hitting," said Chapman, of Athens. "I'd say it was a 10-12 year-old wood turtle. It was crushed right dead-center of road -- meaning they had to (swerve) over the center line with their tire to get to it."

It's that time of year, the time of year where turtles of all species are nesting -- putting them at risk for being hit by cars. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is responding to the problem in the southern part of the state, where the endangered Blanding's turtle and the threatened spotted turtle, by posting seasonal road signs to warn motorists of crossing turtles in the roads.

Here in central Maine, where we own one of the nation's best populations of wood turtles, we should also stay on the lookout over the next several weeks. Turtles typically move the most during the early summer months of June and July, but biologist Jonathan Mays says that wood turtles will continue to be seen occasionally into the early parts of September.

"They're listed as a species of 'special concern,' meaning that their population is probably not too terribly bad in Maine," said Mays, noting that the wood turtles have fallen off significantly in states to our south. "Most of the rest of the wood turtles range has experienced marked (population) declines. Our state has a pretty big responsibility for maintaining one of best populations left."

Chapman, a lifelong reptile and amphibian enthusiast, agrees and wants people to be more vigilant about ensuring a future for wood turtles -- especially unique for their strikingly decorated shells and red and orange hues on their legs.

"I'm 60 now, and I've seen good populations of them," Chapman said. "The kids today aren't going to see them at all if we're not careful. They're just not going to be here anymore."

Wood turtles utilize both riparian and upland habitat, which increases their likelihood of encountering motorized vehicles. They will venture away from stream beds -- sometimes hundreds of yards at a time -- as they forage for food.

The further away from the water they get, the more likely they'll cross a road. And every time a wood turtle crosses another road, it's taking a chance of having a significant effect on the wood turtle population.

One recent study performed in Maine suggests that the loss of one adult wood turtle is equal to the loss of 100 hatchlings. As it is, turtle eggs are heavily predated, as are the tiny juvenile turtles with their soft shells that Mays likened to a "popcorn snack" for predators, including birds and even fish.

It's why wood turtles and other turtle species in Maine can live up to 100 years and have in the neighborhood of some 50 annual attempts at reproduction. If a wood turtle can produce just two adult turtles across its entire reproductive lifetime, it can replace the population and help it flourish.

Which makes what Chapman encountered over the holiday weekend all the more alarming. That's one sexually mature wood turtle -- one of the select few that made it -- that was lost in a continuously losing battle to the percentages.

"We expect we're going to lose a lot of young even if we do everything right, that's part of their biology," Mays said. "But road mortality is something that has a (huge) effect."

"What's very unique about turtles and road kill is that their population ecology is just so different from things we're used to seeing dead on the side of the road," said Phillip deMaynadier, a biologist in DIF&W's reptile-amphibian-invertebrate group. "We see groundhogs, goldfinches, deer, skunks, etc. -- and those all have populations that can withstand a tremendous amount of incidental mortality such as road kill and still bounce back.

"Turtles are exceptionally bad about bouncing back from that."

And the turtle's best defense is to blame for the reptile's susceptibility to becoming road kill.

"The shell has been in place for a couple of hundred million years -- and I'd say it's worked pretty well," deMaynadier said. "A big part of their evolutionary past goes into their shell.

"But typical turtle behavior when it's caught off guard or in fear is to stop moving and retract into their shell, and that works great. It works against wolves, coyotes -- I assume it even worked for dinosaurs. But it just doesn't work for cars. In fact, the worst thing you can do when a car is coming is stop moving and stay still."

Chapman would like to see Maine take a more proactive role in protecting wood turtles. He'd like to see the state incorporate more turtles raised in captivity into the wild, much in the way Florida alligator farmers have done recently to boost those populations.

Mays said, though, that while Chapman's heart and enthusiasm are in the right place, he thinks the issue is a moot one.

As long as our population remains where it is, and as long as people continue to stay on the lookout for turtles -- instead of turning turtle squashing into sport, the way Chapman encountered less than two weeks ago -- central Maine's wood turtle population can endure.

"Our York county frontline effort (including the new signs) is there because those species are endangered and threatened," Mays said. "But that same type effort and biology extends to wood, snapping, painted and musk turtles to some extent (in central Maine)."

It's just up to all of us to do the right thing. For the turtles.

Travis Barrett -- 621-5648

tbarrett@centralmaine.com