MARSHALL - Robert Doherty slowly lifts the cover on a plastic tray and carefully reaches into a small compartment, pinching a small miracle.
Between his thumb and index finger a 1-day-old box turtle hatchling stills itself, a yellow egg sac still attached to the underside of its inch-long body.
Here, in a section of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center set up last summer in Marshall in the wake of the Enbridge Energy Partners LP oil spill, a makeshift neonatal unit has been established to care for the first generation of turtles to be born from parents affected by the spill.
And as much as the Kalamazoo River has a long way to go before it's back to its pre-spill state, these births mark an example of the resilience of the river's wildlife, a metaphor for the rebirth of the waterway after one of the worst oil spills in Midwest history.
From ducks to swans to muskrats and other species, nearly 3,000 animals that were captured last summer and fall, a vast majority having come in contact with the heavy crude oil that leaked from an Enbridge pipeline near Marshall.
But turtles took the brunt of the environmental tragedy, with community members, wildlife officials and others collecting about 2,700 of them, by far the most of all the animals captured. Of that total, about 2,100 were released back into the wild last fall after they were cleaned with, of all things, mayonnaise, which breaks down petrochemicals.
Of the turtles captured, only 10 died.
Doherty, a senior scientist and ecologist with Stantec Consulting, a multi-service engineering and environmental firm, said he believes it was the largest-ever freshwater turtle rescue operation. "The degree to which the community was involved was amazing," he said. "These hatchlings really are small miracles. They're a sign that the river is coming back."
Those turtles that were not released took refuge at the rehabilitation center for the winter. Ninety-four, 400-gallon tubs sit in a large warehouse area at the center. The sound of swirling water fills the room. At first look, the room looks like some sort of decontamination site, with each tub encircled by a white shower curtain (officials don't want the turtles getting used to seeing humans) and the rush of chilly filtered air overhead.
But behind the curtains, the survivors of the spill emerge in their artificial - but homey - habitat, complete with logs and rocks and infrared lamps to keep the cold-blooded turtles warm. In one tub, three small box turtles that had been warming themselves on a log beneath the lamp jump into the water with three small plops. In another, a 40-year-old turtle slowly extends his head from his sheath of neck skin and turns his eyes toward Doherty as if to say hello.
"We want to give them the best environment possible," Doherty said. "They deserve it." Later this month or in early May, the turtles will be released back into the wild, Doherty said. The exact location of where each turtle was collected was plotted with GPS technology, so that when they go home, they arrive at a place that's familiar.
"To be able to put these turtles back just feels really good," said Kevin O'Connor, public information officer for Enbridge.
In a dark corner of the basement of the center, beneath the lids of large Tupperware plastic bins, more miracles are occurring.
Doherty lifts the lid on one bin. Inside, a box turtle was making its slow exit from an egg. After incubating for about 50 days, it takes a turtle hatchling almost three days to fully emerge - exhausted - from the tiny egg. "Pretty neat, huh?," Doherty said. "Another miracle."
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