Millcroft Turtle Killed

The death of a large turtle on Upper Middle Road overnight June 20-21, has sparked blow-back from the local community over suspicions that the nearby development of the Millcroft Golf Course caused it to attempt to cross the road.

Millcroft Against Bad Development (MAD), who have been fighting against the development since it was announced in 2020, said that the golf course is home to a number of different animal species despite the developers claiming otherwise at the Ontario Land Tribunal.

Turtles have been known to make nests throughout the golf course, especially around the sixth hole.

“We have documented more than 53 bird species and the presence of turtles, American minks, beavers and frogs,” Sonia Robinson, an administrator with MAD, said. “We have most recently witnessed turtles laying their eggs in the sand traps on the picturesque sixth hole, and we know that there are turtles on the other holes as well.”

The turtle, which was around the length of a standard ruler (30 centimetres), was found close to the Millcroft water wheel early on Thursday morning.

The Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre, a registered charity created to protect Ontario’s native turtles and their habitats, states that June is the most important time for turtles to lay eggs and that disturbing natural nests may be illegal.

“It was devastating to watch,” Robinson said. “The trees were cut down on May 1, during mating season, and then the developers destroyed the felled trees, where we had witnessed new nests, on June 11.”

MAD said that there is currently an investigation into the tree-cutting incident by Environment and Climate Change Canada due to the trees being removed during nesting season.

The turtle's death came just one day after Ron Foxcroft, a local resident who has been inducted into both the Order of Canada and the Burlington Entrepreneur Hall of Fame, worked with MAD to record a video asking Premier Doug Ford to intervene with the development.

“Taking the large pond offline will destroy a 40-year-old ecosystem and displace wildlife,” Foxcroft said in the video. “Destroying the ecosystem is quite inhumane.”