Mi-O Conservation Zone - Blanding's Turtle

Buttonbush pools are a core habitat for threatened Blanding’s turtles.  They are seasonally or permanently flooded pools that contain the shrub buttonbush.  A Kettle shrub pool is a special type of Buttonbush pool which is located in a glacial kettle (a depression formed by the melting of a stranded block of glacial ice within glacial outwash materials).  Five of the eight kettle shrub pools documented in Rhinebeck are located in the Mining-Overlay District.  Blanding’s turtles have been documented in the area targeted for mine expansion on the former Kinlan property.  Kettle shrub pools are also used by Spotted turtles, a species of Special Concern, and many other wildlife species, and are valuable on their own even without the documented presence of endangered species.