TORTOISE Magazine

PETER LAUFERis a journalist who reports on borders, identities, and migration, along with the relationships of humans to other animals. A former correspondent for NBC News, his books include a natural history quartet that looks at turtles, butterflies, exotic pets, and animal abuse. Laufer’s We Are All Americans: The Lasting Impact of 9/11 Across America (Schiffer Publishing, 2026) is a work based on his cross-America trips immediately after 9/11 and during the Trump/pandemic era. He holds the University of Oregon James Wallace Chair in Journalism. ELLEN SKLARZ is a longtime Ojai resident who serves as editor of The Tortoise magazine. She began her journalism career as a founding editor of the L.A. Weekly and later joined the Los Angeles Times, where she was a columnist, editor, and a regular contributor to the…

In 2003, I answered a phone call from John Behler, then curator of herpetology at the Bronx Zoo. He asked whether I would take on something extraordinary: custodianship of 250 critically endangered tortoises, including individuals from one of the longest-running breeding programs for Madagascan Radiated Tortoises outside Madagascar. John knew I was a lifelong turtle enthusiast with property in California. I still asked him, “Why me, and not the zoo community?” He explained that he didn’t want the group dispersed among dozens of institutions; he wanted someone with the resources and expertise to keep the animals together and continue breeding them successfully. At the time, John was facing terminal heart disease and felt an urgent need to secure the tortoises’ future. Sadly, he passed away the following year—before the animals…

Ojai Conservation Center 1A. CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES OVER THE COURSE OF THIS PAST YEAR, there has been significant activity at the Ojai Conservation Center. Concerning the live animals, we have been conducting health assessments and implementing the collection plan by sending out some animals to other facilities. We also welcomed several confiscated animals in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and AZA SAFE program, mostly North American species. For this purpose, we remodeled a building previously named Burma House into a functional, biosecure, quarantine, and holding facility for confiscated animals. This increases our capacity to welcome confiscations and allows more effectiveness in triage and medical treatments of the animals. The team successfully hatched Ryukyu Black-breasted Leaf Turtles (Geoemyda japonica), Sulawesi Forest Turtles (Leucocephalon yuwonoi), Mexican Box Turtles (Terrapene…

In 2017, members of the Turtle Conservancy flew to northern Mexico, rented three pickup trucks, and set off on a 2,000-kilometer tour of our TC properties, and to visit potential new possible projects. For me, it was a chance to spend quality time with wonderful colleagues, see some new conservation sites up close, and to visit one spot I had long dreamed of seeing. Crossing the Sierra Madre Mountains in our little caravan, we dropped down into the Chihuahuan Desert, a vast ecosystem of cactus, ocotillo, palm-studded oases, and very little water. In that landscape, one place stands out, where brilliant turquoise-hued pools dot the desert. The Cuatro Ciénegas Valley is only a few hours’ drive from the Texas border, yet few Americans know about it. It is an intermontane…

Turtle Conservancy: In what ways did growing up in early California with your parents influence your relationship with nature and your sense of creativity? Laura Dern: I was born in Santa Monica, and living by the ocean was a huge part of my childhood. Visiting Northern California, the redwoods were another huge piece. My dad is a marathoner, so we would always be running on the beach, trails, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and in Muir Woods. When my parents got the chance to get away from work, nature was the ultimate refuge—especially being in the Indio desert and Palm Desert with my mom. The California desert, mountains, and the Pacific Ocean have always been my happy places. TC: Was there a moment in your childhood when conservation first became…

Tom Sachs is one of art’s most imitated and revered figures—not only in the halls of the contemporary art world, but in the streets, from hypebeasts to skaters to hip-hop stars like Travis Scott. Within Sachs’s artistic orbit is his longstanding friendship with Eric Goode, a fellow New Yorker, artist, and environmentalist best known for founding the Turtle Conservancy and creating wildlife documentaries. Their conversation unfolds, revealing not only shared histories but also a mutual conviction in art’s ability to transform our connection to the world around us. Sachs is best known for his bricolage sculptures, re-creations of cultural symbols, and his obsession with NASA. Sachs infuses every endeavor—from YouTube tutorials to ceramics—with a skate-punk spirit and a meticulous, thoughtful approach to craftsmanship. While he has long been associated with…