A tremendous day

Fifteen of the last sixteen years, I’ve spent a day or two as a volunteer with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources doing wildlife assessments – specifically, helping wildlife biologist Scott Smith search for the bog turtle.
The bog turtle is the smallest and rarest turtle in North America. It lives in fragile, widely-scattered mini-ecosystems in Eastern North America.
Maryland, where I live, is near the center of its range.
To me, it’s a complete pleasure to spend a day enjoying God’s glorious creation and helping gather data to protect some easy-to-destroy corners of it – along with the creatures who live in them. Yesterday we surveyed three sites and found eight bog turtles. More than half were re-captured animals that had been marked in past years; a couple were first-time captures. After weighing, measuring, and marking the animals, we released them where we found them, in hopes that our data will help form public policy which will protect them for years to come.
If you’d like to learn more about doing your part to protect and heal the environment, check out everythingmustchange.org and click on planet.