Turtle rescuers are asking for help from the Nova Scotia government to help save a vulnerable species -- the snapping turtle.

The turtles are being threatened by both drivers and poachers, says Clarence Stevens, a volunteer member of the “Turtle Patrol.”

Stevens often finds himself on the side of a highway.

“The turtles would come up out of a body of water and lay their eggs, and often they'll have to cross over a highway, a road to get back to where they came from,” Stevens said.

Stevens believes at least three snapping turtles have laid eggs along a stretch of Highway 102 near Fall River and two of them were killed on the highway.

So they want the provincial government to put up more turtle crossing signs. The transportation department says it’s willing to consider it, once a request is made.

One of the other things the turtle patrol does is pull out weeds, such as white sweet clover. It provides too much shade on the side of the road for the turtles’ nests.

“Those eggs have to stay in the ground roughly about ninety days before they hatch,” says Andrew Hebda of the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History.

The next few months are a critical time for the species.

“Once those eggs are put in the ground and covered over, they’re abandoned, they don't guard them or anything like that, so they're subject to possible predators,” Hebda said.

While out on patrol, Stevens is looking for a female snapping turtle, reported near a construction site.

“So you can see she was definitely here digging,” he says.

He finds a nest -- but no turtle.

Loss of breeding ground and habitat is another problem, and there’s also poaching to worry about.

“We had a report of a young couple that drove up to a laying female in Kennetcook, jumped out of their car, threw a blanket around the snapping turtle, and were in the process of putting the turtle in the trunk when one of our volunteers stopped them,” Stevens said. “They were going to make an ashtray out of that one.”

Stevens hopes help from the provincial government -- and public awareness -- will go a long way in taking the snapping turtle off the list of species at risk someday.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Heidi Petracek.