Spotted, Blanding's and Wood Turtle Conservation Symposium

Spotted, blanding's & wood turtle conservation symposium

The Spotted Turtle, Northeast Blanding's Turtle, and the Northeast Wood Turtle Working Groups are partnering to host a Spotted, Blanding's & Wood Turtle Conservation Symposium on November 4-5, 2019 at the Cacapon Resort State Park in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. The symposium is supported in part by USFWS Competitive State Wildlife Grants and hosted by West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, American Turtle Observatory, and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Overview

The Spotted, Blanding's, and Wood Turtle Conservation Symposium aims to convene experts across the region to network and share ongoing research and conservation efforts for the three species. Both days will focus on presentations that will stimulate conversations about long-term research, landscape-scale conservation, and ecological studies. Breakout sessions will also occur for groups to discuss current concerns and to develop a clear plan for future collaboration across the species’ ranges and necessary next steps to continue to advance their conservation.

The Symposium will be held at the Cacapon Resort State Park: 818 Cacapon Lodge Dr, Berkeley Spring, WV 25411.

Registration Instructions

When registering, please select either 1-Day Attendance ($65) or 2-Day Attendance ($105). The cost for each option covers all of your meals during your time at the symposium (breakfast and lunch on the 4th and 5th, dinner on the 4th).

Additionally, we will be holding a pizza social on Sunday evening (November 3rd) ($9). Weather dependent we are also scheduling a field trip to a local Spotted and Wood Turtle research site. If you plan to participate in either event, please indicate during registration.

Registration deadline is September 1st, 2019.

Please register HERE.

Lodging information

To reserve a room or cabin at Cacapon Resort State Park, please call the front desk at 304-258-1022 (ext. 4202 or 4200) and indicate that you are part of the "turtle symposium" group.

To reduce housing costs, consider coordinating with a roommate in advance. Space is also limited, so please book early. The resort can split the bill between roommates, but will not assign you a roommate.

Deadline for reserving a room/cabin is September 1st, 2019.

*Specific questions regarding the symposium and registration can be directed to Jessica Meck at meckj@si.edu or 540-635-6580.

Call for abstracts

If you have conducted applied conservation research, long-term studies, or landscape-scale conservation / management work with Spotted, Blanding’s, and/or Wood Turtles anywhere in their range, please consider submitting an abstract for an oral or poster presentation. (Please note that the number of oral presentation slots is limited. If your abstract is not selected for an oral presentation, we encourage you to present your work as a poster). Instructions for abstract submission can be found in the following document: abstract-guidelines.pdf.

ORAL presentation abstracts are due AUGUST 16th.

POSTER presentation abstracts are due SEPTEMBER 15th.

Please email abstracts to Jessica Meck (meckj@si.edu). Abstract acceptance notifications will be made on or before September, 1st.

Election Day

Election day on November 5th unfortunately overlaps with our symposium. We sincerely apologize that this got overlooked during the initial stages of the symposium planning. We understand that symposium participants may intend to vote in this year's elections, therefore we would like to provide information regarding submitting absentee ballots or voting early. That information can be found by visiting the U.S. government's page HERE and provides rules for each state.