Oregon Zoo returns endangered turtles to the Columbia River Gorge With the help of volunteers and wildlife officials, the Oregon Zoo returned 22 endangered northwestern pond turtles to the Columbia River Gorge this week. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife biologists collected the turtles as hatchlings from sites in the Gorge last spring. From there, they were taken to the zoo’s conservation lab, where wildlife experts provided heat lamps and plentiful food to help the turtles grow quickly. “In a year, they grew to about the size of 3-year-old turtles ,” Jen Osburn Eliot, who oversees the zoo’s turtle conservation program, said in a news release. “Head-starting the turtles in the lab gives them a much better chance of survival in the wild.” The northwestern pond turtle, also known as the western pond turtle, is listed as an endangered species in Washington and a sensitive species in Oregon.…