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Blanding’s Turtles Find Sanctuary at School

From its front stoop, West Oak Middle School in Mundelein, Illinois, resembles your typical middle school. Yet at its center, where once there was only a vacant courtyard, lies an open-air sanctuary and breeding ground for the state-threatened Blanding’s turtle.

The project began as a meeting of school faculty, including eighth-grade science teacher Toni Carmichael, with Toni’s husband Robert, curator of the Wildlife Discovery Center (WDC) in Lake Forest. The WDC was looking for habitat in which to breed the Blanding’s turtle, with hopes of helping to reestablish the population in Lake County. The school’s poorly utilized courtyard was an unusual but interesting match.

Through cooperative efforts, staff and students at all grade levels created a beautiful rain garden habitat with wetland plants, a miniature prairie, and a pond that is home to two male and four female Blanding’s turtles, as well as two painted turtles and a map turtle. The National Wildlife Federation honored the school by certifying its courtyard as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat, a designation that recognizes landscapes helping to restore ecological balance.

As the captive release program continues to grow, the staff plan to give more ownership to the students. “Even the high school students come back to check on the turtles and see how they’re doing,” Carmichael laughs.

Most of the school’s Blanding’s turtles are confiscations from individuals who possessed them illegally. One female, however, had a different history before becoming part of the program. During the Junior Olympics Sailing Regatta on Lake Michigan, one racer noticed a small turtle floating on the surface, barely alive. He passed her, but then turned back to assuage his guilty conscience. Luckily, WDC staff members were nearby doing fieldwork and were able to save her. Affectionately named “Michigan,” she turned out to be the project’s first breeding female, giving birth to 12 hatchlings in the courtyard last year.

“And,” Carmichael was happy to report, “the Olympian who turned back for her still won the race!”

— Jennifer Tang