Photos copyright by and courtesy of Earthshine Mountain Lodge
Conservation is such an important issue, we partner with other conservation organizations and movements whenever possible. The other day, we received this heartwarming letter from Steve O'Neil:
I am a naturalist and wildlife rehabilatator at a small environmental education facility called Earthshine Mountain Lodge in western North Carolina. I am working to educate our guests on the plight our planet's wildlife is facing due to human encroachment into their habitats as well as habitat destruction and fragmentation locally and worldwide. Last year I started an Eastern Box Turtle rescue and rehabilitation program for turtles injured on roads and those that have lost their habitats due to over development. We currently have two large outdoor habitats with 4 non-releasable turtles and one waiting to be released. We are also participating in a statewide project called the Box Turtle Connection that is trying to learn why the box turtle is declining in numbers throughout the state.
For this project we are censusing and marking all the wild turtles we find and tracking 4 wild turtles using micro-radio transmitters. Guests at the lodge learn about turtles through special programs and guided turtle tracking hikes and through the website linked below. We fund most of our project on donations and therefore we are on a tight budget when it comes to purchasing equipment and educational aids, so if you are interested you may "adopt" a turtle to help support the program.
Below is a link to the Earthshine Nature website that covers our nature and box turtle projects:
http://www.geocities.com/thesolorover/earthshinenaturepages
The main Earthshine site can be found here:
http://www.earthshinemtnlodge.com/
Thank you,
Steve O'Neil
Naturalist/Environmental Educator/Wildlife Warrior
Earthshine Mountain Lodge
Lake Toxaway, NC
www.earthshinemtnlodge.com
(828) 606-8939
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The Tapir Preservation Fund realized we could help out by donating certain plastic turtles to their gift shop that fit better with their programs than with ours. We also broke one of our cardinal business rules and gave out a couple of contacts. Sure, we need to make some money for the tapirs, but conservation efforts such as Steve's are extremely important to all of us and to our planet. We believe in working together to preserve nature in its entirety for everyone. Please check out the links above. Have you ever thought of vacationing in a gorgeous setting in green North Carolina? Think about it! Or make a donation.
All the best,
Sheryl