About this site
Boxturtlefacts.org is a repository for articles written by Sandy Barnett on box turtle husbandry, conservation, and rehabilitation. Sandy will continue to add articles as they are available.
About Sandy Barnett
Sandy Barnett received her BA degree in Biogeography from the University of California at Los Angeles and her MA degree in the same field from the University of Michigan. She worked in zoological and research facilities as an animal keeper for 28 years, serving almost 17 years as a Senior Herpetologist at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. While at NAIB, Sandy spoke at numerous conferences, and published several articles in peer reviewed journals on lizard and amphibian husbandry. Drawing upon her extensive experience in the care of box turtles in captivity, Sandy was senior author of “Indoor Care of North American Box Turtles,” which won an award as top article of the year in the veterinary journal, Exotic DVM, in 2004.
Sandy served on the Board of Directors for the Mid-Atlantic Turtle & Tortoise Society for seven years, including five as President. She also served as the editor of the society newsletter, Terrapin Tales, for two years. During her tenure on the MATTS board, Sandy produced an educational CD on the natural history and conservation of the eastern box turtle (“Eastern Box Turtles, Disappearing Gems of the Forest”) that has been distributed to secondary schools, nature centers, and wildlife agencies with youth programs, and translated into German for distribution in German-speaking countries. Sandy remains active in fostering box turtles surrendered to MATTS for eventual placement in new homes or release into the wild (with permission of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources).
Sandy served three years as Vice President of the Friends of Jug Bay and is an active volunteer at Jug Bay Wetland Sanctuary, a 15,000-acre nature preserve in Lothian, Maryland. She designed a large outdoor pen for exhibiting several non-releasable box turtles at the Sanctuary. The preserve hosts a large, well studied wild population of box turtles. Sandy has assisted in several box turtle studies at Jug Bay concerning population density, home range size, and movement of gravid females.
Sandy is a member of the ICC (Inter County Connector) Box Turtle Advisory Group. This committee works with the Maryland State Highway Administration to establish a set of guidelines to minimize the damage to box turtle populations during the construction of this tollway. During the summers of 2008 through 2010, Sandy organized the volunteer program to remove turtles from the pathway of the future ICC and relocate the animals to safer habitat.
