Gopher Tortoise Council

Day 5: Be A Good Turtle Neighbor! 🤝

On our final day of Wild Turtle Week, we encourage everyone to do their part in helping turtles. Everyone can play a role, from planting native plants to advocating for turtle protections. Even educating yourself further about turtles helps advance knowledge and aid in their conservation. Join the Gopher Tortoise Council and our partners this week in making the Wild Turtle Pledge. Together, we can enjoy, honor, and help wild turtles! 🐢💚

Huge thanks to Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation for their help in organizing and providing graphics for this week, along with all of the great work they do for turtle conservation!

Day 3: Every Turtle Counts!

Turtle populations cannot afford any extra losses. With a long age of maturity and limited survival of offspring, turtles already face natural challenges that make their survival difficult. On top of that, all of the human-related stressors make it tough to be a turtle. Wild turtles need to stay wild, as the pet trade is one of the biggest threats worldwide. The turtle trade moves thousands of individuals every year, often illegally.

People can be misguided when they try to "save" turtles by taking them out of the wild and raising them as pets. Many do not realize that turtles do not make great pets since they require specific conditions and often live longer than we do. Do not feed wild turtles, and only pick them up if they are in immediate danger in the road and help them cross.

If you care, leave turtles there!

Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation

Day 1: Turtley Awesome!

Today we think about why turtles are special, to us, to their ecosystems, and to the world. Our incredible mascot, the gopher tortoise, is particularly special as the only native land tortoise found east of the Mississippi River, the best ecosystem engineer around, and the survivor of floods, fires, and more! Tell us in the comments why you think gopher tortoises are special!

Of course gopher tortoises are not the only awesome turtles out there, and for Wild Turtle Week, Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation has designed an amazing resource to learn more about turtles all over the US! Check out the 50 States of Turtles Campaign at the link in our bio!

We've been excited share about our pilot program, Burrows & Bobwhites, a conservation education project focused on connecting students across South Georgia to native habitat, stewardship, and wildlife conservation through hands-on learning.

Made possible through support from the Gopher Tortoise Council Donna J. Heinrich Environmental Education Grant, this project uses school-based habitat demonstration plots to teach students about the importance of healthy upland ecosystems and the species that depend on them.

At the center of this program are two important species:
The Gopher Tortoise - a keystone species whose burrows support more than 350 other wildlife species
The Northern Bobwhite Quail - an umbrella species that helps tell the story of healthy habitat and working lands

Through Burrows & Bobwhites, students have helped build and plant native habitat beds that serve as living outdoor classrooms. These plots are designed to visually demonstrate:
- Native plants and deep root systems
- Habitat structure and management
- Pollinators and biodiversity
- Food, cover, and space for wildlife
- Conservation stewardship and land management

Since launching this spring, the project has already connected with students in 10 counties through the coastal plain of Georgia, helping introduce young stewards to habitat management, conservation careers, and the importance of stewardship on working lands.

Thank you to the Gopher Tortoise Council and all of the educators, conservation partners, volunteers, and schools supporting this effort to grow the next generation of conservation leaders!

Special thank you to our sponsors Strickly Native , who donated all of the 100+ native plugs used across the whole program, and Plantation Landscape Supply, for donating 3.5 cubic yards of soil! This contribution made the program even better than we could have imagined. Keep building native habitat.