In 2025, EGBI continued its partnership with the Ontario Turtle Conservation Centre through a $25,000 contribution, supporting OTCC’s work mitigating threats to at-risk turtles in the Eastern Georgian Bay region, with a focus on Blanding’s, Eastern Musk, and Spotted Turtles. The funding supported emergency care, rehabilitation, headstarting, research, and public education throughout the year.

By the end of November 2025, OTCC had admitted 2,253 injured turtles from across Ontario, including 177 from the Eastern Georgian Bay Region (44 of them Blanding’s Turtles). Its First Responder Veterinary Program grew to 46 veterinarians provincewide, seven of them active in the region, with five newly trained in 2025. As a teaching hospital, OTCC also delivered over 180 hours of training to veterinary students and 200 hours to veterinary technician co-op students, all while caring for more than 2,200 injured turtles. A network of 1,610 volunteer “turtle taxis” drove nearly 290,000 km in 2025, over 15,000 km of it within the Eastern Georgian Bay Region.

A total of 4,083 turtles, including hatchlings, were released back to their source wetlands in 2025, with 398 of those releases occurring in the Eastern Georgian Bay Region. Egg incubation and headstarting remained a major focus: 9,004 eggs were incubated, producing over 3,500      hatchlings to date, including 236 from 579 eggs originating in the region, these will be released in spring 2026.

Public engagement stayed strong despite a temporary pause in onsite programming during a facility transition, with 13,498 people reached through 143 educational events and facility tours. A 12-year study on headstarted Blanding’s Turtles has shown they survive and perform as well as wild-hatched individuals, informing release strategies now being applied to other species. Looking ahead, OTCC is partnering with Animex International and Eco-Kare International to design and monitor ecopassages and wildlife fencing to address road mortality, the leading threat to the region’s turtles.