The Asian Scholarship Program for In-situ Chelonian Conservation (ASPin-situCC) is primarily seated at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. Begun in 2000, the ASPin-situCC has funded fourteen international chelonian conservationists participation in the Wetland Institute's Terrapin Recovery Project, a community based conservation effort. This opportunity involves field work designed to learn about, and to protect, the northern diamondback terrapin, a salt marsh turtle that inhabits the US eastern seaboard.
Many other venues have contributed to the overall experience of ASP participants since 2000. During the past two years these include time at Dr. Peter Pritchard's Chelonian Research Institute, field work with University of Southern Mississippi graduate student Tom Morhman, and Dr. Tom Wilson's University of Tennessee at Chattanooga project focusing on riverine turtles of the Tennessee River.
This reaching turtle icon is a wood block, designed and carved by a long time turtle person, Martha, from the San Francisco Bay area. She has turtle dreams. This wood block is one result of her dreams and artistic talent. Following is a narrative Martha wrote relating how this and other turtle wood blocks sprung forth from those dreams.
"I did the turtles because ever since I was a child I've had a recurring dream about box turtles. The dream varies somewhat but the basic elements are the same. I'm kneeling on the ground in a garden or grassy backyard. It's a sunny morning in Springtime; the earth is warm and the grass and plants are dewy. I start to dig in the earth with my bare fingers, as though I'm looking for something. Suddenly box turtles start to emerge from the earth around me. They're digging themselves up and out with their claws. They are moist and, the markings on their shells and heads are beautiful and vivid. They look happy. Sometimes the turtles are juveniles and small: sometimes they're adults. The dream generaly ends there, with the turtles coming out of the ground, and a sense that something good is emerging".
