Westlawn is recognized as a Year 2 Virginia Naturally school during the 2024-2025 school year. This distinction is in recognition of the work done by staff in increasing the environmental literacy of the Commonwealth’s youngest citizens. While all Westlawn staff help shape students’ environmental literacy, the team of Gretchen Maxwell, Megahn Winters, Carol Hunt, Kristen Burke, and Jill Salvaterra were instrumental in shepherding Westlawn’s continued recognition. Their “green thumbs” can also be seen all over our campus, from the trees on the playground to the abundant garden in the Discovery Area.

As a Year 2 school, we have the honor of displaying the Year 2 badge featuring the wood turtle. Below is information about the wood turtle that was shared by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Westlawn will be receiving a recognition certificate to place in the plaque we received last year. Stay tuned to our social media channels on Facebook and on Instagram throughout the year for photos of our students engaged in conservation work and learning about Virginia’s native plant and animal species.

About the wood turtle:

“Wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta), also known as “bottom walkers,” are often seen crawling along the bottom of streams foraging for crayfish and aquatic insects. These turtles don’t spend their entire lives in water though; they are considered semi-aquatic and can be found usually within 300 feet of their home stream. Because of their preference for clean, cold-water streams, wood turtles serve as excellent indicators of stream health and water quality as well as the overall health of a stream’s surrounding landscape.

“When on land, wood turtles can perform a unique feeding behavior, in which they “stomp” the ground with their chest to attract worms to the surface. It’s believed that the worms will surface because the vibrations of the turtle’s movements mimic those of rain or the sound of a mole, a known predator of earthworms, coming their way.

“The wood turtle’s Virginia range once included portions of the northern Piedmont, but the species’ population has declined dramatically, largely due to urbanization, and is now isolated to Northern Virginia and the Northern Shenandoah Valley. Additional threats include being hit by vehicles while crossing roads, predation of nests by raccoons in suburban areas, and illegal collection. The wood turtle is listed as a Threatened Species under Virginia’s Endangered Species Act and a Tier I species of Critical Conservation Need in Virginia’s Wildlife Action Plan. The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) and its partners developed the Virginia Wood Turtle Conservation Plan with the goal to preserve viable wood turtle populations within the Commonwealth. To learn more about the wood turtle, please visit DWR’s wood turtle webpage.”