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The Many Paths To Conservation

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The Many Paths To Conservation

On July 14th, the Turtle Conservancy was invited to present to Nordhoff High School’s College and Career Foundations course. This summer the class is instructed by Peter Deneen, an Ojai local turned environmental writer and educator bringing inspiration to the public high school. Deneen had an innovative approach that included inviting professionals from diverse fields to come and speak to his students. He shared with us that his goal for the class was to “create a container of self-exploration for 10-12th graders living in our current chaotic uncertainty of now, where the traditional pathways to ‘success’ have been eroded by the social, political, and environmental realities of the moment, and equip them with the tools they will need to get to know themselves and their core purpose as well as possible.”

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The Tortoise Magazine No. 11

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The Tortoise Magazine No. 11

The 11th issue of The Tortoise is here! In this year’s magazine we highlight the conservationists, artists, and scientists who have devoted their lives to awareness and conservation for turtles and tortoises. With stories about the illicit trade and the conviction of poachers, historical and current exploitation of chelonians by humans, and artistic interpretations that connect us with the natural world, readers will enjoy the diverse approaches through which today’s conservation challenges are met…

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Summer Internship

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Summer Internship

Meet our Summer Intern, Lily King! Lily is an upcoming senior at The Thacher School and her internship is focused on a more veterinary aspect of turtle conservation. Lily’s passion for animals caught our eye during her year in our Field Biology and Conservation class and this past month, she has exceeded our expectations by aiding in general animal husbandry tasks, and minor veterinary procedures under supervision that included beak trims, pit tagging, deworming and caring for animals under quarantine protocols. We also had some fun going out into the field and surveying for our native Southwestern Pond Turtles. Lily, we’ve had fun learning alongside you, thank you for your dedication to turtles and for all your help this summer!

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A Look Inside Turtle Camp

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A Look Inside Turtle Camp

Over the past three years, the Turtle Conservancy and The Thacher School have developed a partnership aimed at innovating a new kind of science curriculum that engages students in real-world turtle conservation programs through hands-on learning experiences. This summer we took it to the next level by inviting middle school students from Los Angeles County and surrounding areas to join us on a week-long adventure. The students were immersed in learning about various aspects of turtle conservation and Ojai ecology. Some specific topics that we covered include learning about individual chelonian species, conservation management techniques, egg development, the climate crisis, and the theory of convergent evolution in giant tortoises….

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Southern Pacific Pond Turtle Conservation Program

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Southern Pacific Pond Turtle Conservation Program

The TC’s Southern Pacific Pond Turtle Conservation Program has been off to a great start this season. In past posts we've chronicled our search for Southern California’s only native freshwater turtle, Actinemys pallida, at two field sites. Past sightings have been sporadic and too few to confirm the presence of a population of resident Southern Pacific Pond Turtles which are notorious for evading human detection. This changed in May. Once we were permitted to employ hands-on techniques of capturing turtles, we immediately began finding healthy adults suggesting viable populations are present in these two very different locations.

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Thacher School X Turtle Conservancy

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Thacher School X Turtle Conservancy

The Thacher School and Turtle Conservancy have reached another milestone in our partnership as we have successfully wrapped up our second full school year of teaching the Field Biology and Conservation courses!

Ted Turner Saves Tortoises

Ted Turner Saves Tortoises

This past month, the Turtle Conservancy Board of Directors and Staff were invited to participate in the release of 25 Bolson Tortoises back into their Pleistocene range. Joining 75 others that now range free on the Armendaris Ranch, these tortoises are part of a group of over 700 captive-bred Bolson Tortoises raised on Ted Turner's Armendaris and Ladder Ranches in New Mexico. Bolson tortoises were unknown to science until the remnant population in Mexico was discovered in 1959. Wild bolson tortoises have been absent from the continental U.S. for over 10,000 years, during the late Pleistocene Epoch…

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AZA Recertification

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AZA Recertification

The Turtle Conservancy is delighted to report that we have once again passed our AZA certification!

On April 20th, the Turtle Conservancy attended the AZA Accreditation Commission for our 5-year recertification hearing. This included an AZA accreditation committee of 13 directors, vets, and CEOs from around the country. Many were the heads of prestigious organizations like Monterey Bay Aquarium, WCS, OKC Zoo, and more and we were pleased to share that we passed our certification with a successful report.

Doing Our Small Part...

Doing Our Small Part...

Five days before Vladimir Putin’s soldiers invaded Ukraine on Feb. 19, Kyiv native Elena and her three children boarded a plane bound for Los Angeles to visit her younger sister. What had been planned as Elena’s 36th birthday celebration and solo trip to Ojai turned quickly into a narrow escape for her and her three children that — in a lucky twist — landed them in a house on Eric Goode’s Turtle Conservancy in Ojai…

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Thacher Course End-of-Term Recap

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Thacher Course End-of-Term Recap

The winter school term has come to an end for our Thacher School students! This has been our most abundant year yet with 28 students enrolled in our Field Biology and Conservation courses which focus on field biology techniques and conservation through the lens of turtles. Our innovative students are currently working on various conservation projects which have research, design and engineering aspects to them. This is a wonderful opportunity for students, who are especially interested in future careers in the animal field, to get hands-on experience...

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End of Year Appeal

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Here's a quick reminder: there are just hours left to send in a tax-deductible year-end gift before the end of 2021!

A donation to the Turtle Conservancy is a donation to help protect this planet from:

With nearly 70,000 acres of grasslands, rainforests, and fynbos under our protection, you can help reverse the effects of climate change. These highly regenerative ecosystems act both as a carbon sink and a means to sequester carbon. Protecting land also prevents ever encroaching slash-and-burn agriculture and cattle farming. (Photo of Sandoval Reserve and Reforestation Area by Katala Foundation)

The wildlife rangers we support safeguard some of the most endangered tortoises on the planet. Our conservation center houses hundreds of turtles confiscated from smugglers around the world. (Photo of tortoise guardians on Geometric Tortoise Preserve)

Turtle Conservancy programs hatch hundreds of endangered turtles and tortoises every year, both in the wild and at our conservation center in California. This past year we released over 4,000 Diamondback Terrapins in New Jersey. Our captive breeding efforts currently encompass 19 of the top 50 most endangered turtles and tortoises.

Your gift is an investment in people and the planet. Every bit of your support will be matched by a generous donor.

Please donate by midnight tonight and make 2021 a success for turtles!

Giving Tuesday 2021

Giving Tuesday 2021

The Turtle Conservancy protects over 65,000 acres of wild land—safeguarding not only the turtles and tortoises but also a whole host of plants and animals that call these places home. Take a look at our conservation projects below to learn about what your donations will support on this #GivingTuesday!

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TC Welcomes New Turtles

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TC Welcomes New Turtles

The TC has welcomed some very unique Australian turtles to our living collection. Last week we received a pair of Mary River Turtles from Oklahoma City Zoo. This endangered species is the only member of its genus and is found—as the name suggests—exclusively in the Mary River of South East Queensland...

TC Fall Board Meeting

TC Fall Board Meeting

In late October, the Turtle Conservancy had the pleasure of holding our first (mostly) in-person board meeting in nearly two years. The three day gathering at our center in Ojai, CA was a much-anticipated chance for us to come together and update board members on our ongoing programs and discuss the future of the TC...

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Conceptual Art at UN Climate Conference in Glasgow

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Conceptual Art at UN Climate Conference in Glasgow

Climate change is the greatest threat to humanity and our planet as we know it. Turtles and tortoises are a perfect bellwether for the crisis as many aspects of their biology are directly influenced by their environment. Already, their populations are being affected, because their sex is determined by temperatures during egg incubation. If all hatchlings develop into females, reproduction will eventually cease to occur. Changing weather patterns are also accelerating loss of suitable habitat for many species to survive. The combined pressure of these changes to the environment could be catastrophic for turtles and tortoise species, of which more than half are threatened with extinction.

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Save The Okavango

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Save The Okavango

The Okavango River Basin is in danger. Permits have been granted to a Canadian fossil fuel company, ReconAfrica, which plans to build new oil and gas fields in the Okavango wilderness region of Namibia and Botswana. The license permits drilling and potentially fracking over a 13,200-square-mile area that includes land adjacent to protected areas in Namibia’s Kavango regions and the Okavango Delta (the world's largest inland delta) in Botswana...

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October Outreach

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October Outreach

On October 16th, the Turtle Conservancy team joined the community of Ojai to celebrate one of its most historic days, Ojai Day. Ojai Day traces its origins back to 1917 and continues its annual celebration with local vendors, art exhibitions and entertainment...

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