Why are the turtles of Ontario an important natural resource?

Question

How can the native turtle species of an area like Ontario be argued to be an important natural resource? What are the consequences if they become extinct from these areas? I have found much information regarding conservation and turtle facts, but none that explain WHY we should save them. Aside from preserving some biodiversity in the wetlands and forests, what's the point?

Answer 1

Wildlife can be an important natural resource even when there is no "use".  They still impact us aesthetically, psychologically, and culturally.

Biodiversity is the point.

We live in an incredible world because it is so diverse.  Every time we lose some of that diversity, our world becomes a little less incredible.  Imagine a world where the only tree is a maple, the only flower is an iris, the only wild bird you saw was a rock dove, and the only wild mammal was a mouse - nothing else.  It would be a very boring world.

Think of the fascination most children have with dinosaurs.  To them, dinosaurs represent "another world" - one that they'll never experience outside of their own imagination.  It would be a shame if they had to imagine everything else, too and had nothing left to experience first-hand.

Once we lose a species, we can't get it back.  The loss of the passenger pigeon didn't devastate the ecosystem, but it was a tragic loss nonetheless.  From the written accounts, there were so many of them that they literally darkened the sky like night when they flew overhead.  That's something I'll never see even though I would like to.  I try to imagine what it would have been like; it must have been amazing.

Losing turtles may not send us on a path towards the end of all life on earth.  But, like the passenger pigeon, they become one more thing lost forever to human inconsideration.  Turtles are an important natural resource because there are a bunch of us who just darn like those unique little creatures who hobble around with their fused-on armor.  They make us smile, and we smile bigger when we can actually see them - not just imagine them.

Answer 2

They're part of the ecosystem just like the wolves, foxes etc...

Answer 3

Turtle soup. =P (sorry)