The females can get disoriented, and they'll sometimes lay eggs right next to a road. Ironically, the turtle itself may prove to be the most effective defender of what little suitable habitat remains. If it becomes widely recognized that these turtles are threatened, there's really much more potential for protecting that habitat and the surrounding habitat from development. If this remaining habitat is lost, the Blanding's turtle may become a mere footnote in the region's natural heritage. Kollias, and many others, have strong opinions about what such a loss would ultimately mean.
Some people wonder why it's important to protect native biodiversity.
Some of the answers to that question aren't known and unfortunately often won't be known until a species is gone. Biologists are just starting to understand the complex relationships between different species, ecological niches, and habitats, and how they all interrelate. If one piece of a puzzle is removed, the rest of it doesn't fit together very well, and there might be a trickle-down effect that impacts other species which weren't even known to have been involved in this intricate web. That, I think, would be a really difficult lesson. Clearly, Kollias disagrees.