Per a presentation by Karl Kratzer at yesterday’s Virginia Herpetological Society meeting, I understand more about what the deal is with Machicomoco State Park. The property was a working farm as late as 2008. When residential development failed to materialize, Dominion Energy bought it and proffered it to the commonwealth this decade. The park does not yet have a master plan. (It doesn’t have a Wikipedia page, either.) Hence, the soybean fields in the middle of the ring road.
But, to unbury the lede, Machicomoco is an active breeding site for Northern Diamond-backed Terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin ssp. terrapin). By Kratzer’s reasoning, due to their site fidelity, the turtles and farmers have been coexisting for quite some time.