Celebrating Some Good News – for Local Turtles and for In The Hills

A couple of years ago, a handsome painted turtle was sunning itself on a log in our small pond when my teenage son – never one for coming up with flattering names – dubbed it “Arthritis.” We overruled Hadden and called the turtle Arthur for most of the summer.

Arthur was perhaps a relative of this issue’s cover model: a juvenile midland painted turtle photographed by longtime In The Hills contributor Don Scallen. For the accompanying cover story, Don spent considerable time learning about the efforts of Headwaters Turtle Protectors and other groups dedicated to the protection of midland painted turtles and other, more at-risk, species, including snapping turtles and Blanding’s turtles. 

One effort Don refers to is a fencing project near Brantford. By diverting turtles to a culvert under a busy highway this fence has almost eliminated turtle road mortality on that stretch of road. Of the people and groups making a difference for turtles, Don writes: “These ordinary people doing extraordinary things to help these imperilled animals are a cause for optimism and celebration in these dark times for biodiversity and the environment.”

Don’s piece is exactly the kind of work In The Hills was recognized for by Ontario Nature, a charity dedicated to protecting wild species and spaces through conservation, education and public engagement. In December 2025, they presented the Ontario Nature Media and Conservation Award to In The Hills’ dedicated team of writers, photographers and editors for “over 30 years of deeply researched, locally focused environmental journalism and nature storytelling.”

In the case of In The Hills, this storytelling includes in-depth work full of detail and nuance. Don’s turtle feature explores the interconnected conditions of extinction and extirpation (local extinction) – and positions grassroots work as one antidote that just might be replicable.

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An essay by New York Times contributor Margaret Renkl, published just before this issue was going to press, touches on similar themes. In “The Glorious Birds We Saved,” Renkl writes about visiting a North Alabama refuge to see whooping cranes, creatures that have made a modest, but thrilling comeback from a population of 20 in 1941 to more than 800 today, thanks to various programs. To Renkl, the species is not only a “rare and beautiful bird,” but also “a rare and beautiful bird that still exists because human beings decided a long time ago that it should exist.”

Much as Don sees reason for optimism in the work of turtle protectors, Renkl writes: “To see a whooping crane in the wild is to be reminded that we nearly killed something miraculous – and then, almost unbelievably, we didn’t. Against all evidence to the contrary, we are as much the healing species as the murdering one.”

Ontario Nature honoured In The Hills for our commitment to telling stories about nature, conservation and the environment. Highlighting solution-seekers and even small successes that can be shared – and potentially multiplied – across landscapes and communities is part of the commitment this magazine intends to keep.