While Meredith Lake is best known as a special location for students and alumnae, it is also home to a range of wildlife. When the lake failed, contractors moved all of the fish to the ponds behind The Oaks apartments. The turtles naturally migrated on their own to streams in the woods behind the lake as well as the ponds behind The Oaks.

Once the lake was refilled, the turtles migrated back. Meredith Facilities Services is looking into options to stock the lake with positive habitat wildlife.

“I have two research students looking at biodiversity around the Meredith Lake area, comparing data to a turtle population survey before the lake drained,” said Associate Professor of Biological Sciences Maria Pickering. 

Students carried out three turtle trapping surveys in fall 2021.

“We actually caught one individual that had been marked from pre-lake drainage, which is pretty neat,” Pickering added.