Last month our education coordinator, Manci Rasmussen, and Thacher School intern, Katie Vyhnal, were invited to join our local library and elementary school for their weekly children's storytime event. That week’s topic happened to be turtles, so we took this opportunity to share our mission to protect turtles and tortoises and their natural habitats with the kids. We specifically spoke to families about our local Southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys pallida) and educated them on how they can do their part by participating in citizen science by using iNaturalist to aid in their conservation.

Thank you to the Ojai Library and Meiners Oaks Elementary for hosting us! We look forward to future opportunities to work with our neighbors to continue spreading the word about our native turtle species.