Turtle is proposed as state reptile

Amid the partisan clamoring in the General Assembly over tobacco and guns and money, lawmakers may have found consensus on a piece of legislation that costs nothing and hurts nobody.

Senate Bill 1504 seeks the noble designation of "State Reptile" for that lovable, hard-working, hard-shelled insect eater, the Eastern Box Turtle.

At the request of a constituent from Vienna, Sen. Chap Petersen, D-Fairfax City, has taken up the cause of the pint-sized, cold-blooded creature with the dappled orange-and-black shell, which lives in the wooded swamps and grassy fields of Virginia and throughout the eastern United States.

"The Eastern Box Turtle is disappearing in the United States," Petersen said. "With development and growth and all the loss of wetlands, its natural habitat and its numbers are diminishing."

But while it can live to be more than 100 years old, it is among the slowest-reproducing species in the world. Its size, lack of speed and ability to blend into nature also have not helped.
"It tends to be a very small animal," Petersen said. "Easily squashed."

Does Virginia really need a state reptile?

"Probably not," Petersen said. "But the state doesn't need anything. We have a state boat [Chesapeake Bay deadrise], a state covered-bridge capital [Patrick County], a state dog [American foxhound], a state fish [brook trout], a state flower [American dogwood], a state folk dance [square dancing], a state fossil [Chesapecten jeffersonius]."

An attempt several years ago to get the reptile designation for the turtle failed when some objected to its Latin name, Terrapene carolina. North Carolina claimed the Eastern Box Turtle as its state reptile in 1979.

But things may be looking up for Peterson's bill. It cleared the Senate Agriculture Conservation and Natural Resources committee by a 12-1 vote.

Did we mention that it costs nothing?

"We don't need to fear the turtle," said Petersen.

Jim Nolan is a staff writer for Media General’s Richmond Times-Dispatch.