Help the Bay Program Name Its New Terrapin!

August 2008 -- Maryland’s state reptile, the diamondback terrapin, has found a new home at the Bay Program’s Annapolis office, and we need your help to name it!

The Bay Program is participating in the Terrapin Institute’s Head Start Program, which places young hatchling terrapins in classrooms throughout Maryland. Staff at the Bay Program office named two of the terrapins Secchi and Runoff, but we need the help of Bay-lovers like you to name the third!

If you’d like to submit a name, e-mail us by Friday, September 5. We’ll pick the most creative entry.

Through the Head Start Program, school children raise and care for hatchling terrapins -- which are about the size of a quarter -- while learning about the terrapins’ life cycles and threats to their survival in the wild.

After a year, the Terrapin Institute releases the terrapins back into the Bay, usually with identification tags for further study. The three terrapins now living at the Bay Program’s office hatched in Kent Narrows, Maryland, and will be returned there in July of 2009.

Since 1999, the Head Start Program has placed more than 800 terrapins in schools in five Maryland counties, helping students make a difference for the Bay and the environment. If you’d like more information about the Head Start Program, contact terrapininstitute@comcast.net.