Upcoming Box Turtle Workshop at SERC

Wow - two blog posts in less than 24 hours...  Lets just say I like to "hit the ground running" - LOL!

No, seriously, my friend Katrina over at The Mid-Atlantic Turtle & Tortoise Society just alerted me to a really cool work shop being held over at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center - and since its happening right here in everyone's back yard, this coming TUESDAY EVENING, I wanted to get the word out ASAP.

So here are all the details:

Box Turtle Workshop

When: Tuesday, September 18, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Where: Philip D. Reed Education Center (Bldg #200), Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Contees Wharf Road, Edgewater, MD (directions available on the SERC website)

Speaker: Sandy Barnett (www.BoxTurtleFacts.org)

Requested donation: $25 (tax deductible) payable at the door

RSVP and Questions: contact Karen McDonald at 443.482.2388

Do you own box turtles, or just want to learn more about them? Have you ever found an injured or sick box turtle and don't know how to provide emergency care? You'll find the answers to these and other turtle questions at this workshop.

We will cover indoor and outdoor housing (including special needs housing),  hatchling care, nutrition, routine health management, diseases, emergency care of injured and sick specimens, and the proper ways to transport box turtles. Examples of short-term housing for special needs and healthy turtles will be displayed.

We will also briefly cover proper handling and transport of semi-aquatic turtles, including snapping turtles.

Participants will receive two CDs - one on the natural history and conservation of the Eastern Box Turtle and a guide to the turtles of Maryland, and one with relevant medical articles and other useful material.

Tax-deductible donations to the workshop will support the National Box Turtle Conservation Committee (www.boxturtleconservation.org). The Committee funds
research and educational programs that promote box turtles conservation.

Speaker:

Sandy Barnett was an animal keeper for 28 years, the last 17 as a Senior Herpetologist at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. She is senior author of "Indoor Care of North American Box Turtles," which was awarded top article of the year in the veterinary journal, Exotic DVM, in 2004.

She has been a guest speaker on box turtle husbandry and medical care at many local and national conferences. She served as President of the Mid-Atlantic
Turtle & Tortoise Society (www.midatlanticturtles.org) for five years (2002-2006). Sandy has joined in field research on wild box turtles at Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary in Maryland. As a member of the Box Turtle Advisory Group to the state of Maryland, she organized a volunteer team to remove and relocate over 600 box turtles from a large tollway construction project (the Intercounty Connector) during the summers of 2007-2011, and cared for more than 100 of the smallest juveniles as a head-start project. Sandy is a member of the National Box Turtle Conservation Committee.

Hope you all can attend!!  See you there!