BOG TURTLE BILL: Governor Murphy came to Riverside Elementary School Monday to sign a bill designating the bog turtle as the official New Jersey state reptile, culminating two years of campaigning by Riverside and Community Park School students and their teachers Mark Eastburn and Bevan Jones. (Photo by Donald Gilpin)

By Donald Gilpin

“This is your bill. Let’s all have a “shellabration,” said New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, as he signed a bill declaring the bog turtle as the official state reptile before a full house in the Riverside Elementary School gym on Monday afternoon.

The event was the culmination of a two-year effort by students working with science teacher Mark Eastburn at Riverside, with librarian Bevan Jones at Community Park School (CPS), and others throughout the state.

Also on hand for the event were state Senator Kip Bateman (R-16), who sponsored the bog turtle bill in the Senate, and Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker (D-16), who sponsored the bill in the state Assembly. Both the Senate and Assembly passed the bill unanimously this spring before sending it to the governor for his signature.

“This is now the law of the land,” said Murphy as he held up the bill he had just signed.

“The kids never gave up, and I couldn’t give up either, and that’s how this came through,” said Eastburn, who initiated the project when he came back from a workshop in North Carolina in 2016 and told his students that the bog turtle was the North Carolina state reptile. Until Monday New Jersey did not have a state reptile.

“This was a matter that demanded our immediate attention,” said fifth-grader Jaime Acevedo, speaking to the audience of students from Riverside and CPS, along with their teachers and an assortment of visiting dignitaries, including turtle researchers and conservationists from throughout the state.

Over the past two years, Eastburn and Jones and their students have mounted a campaign to raise awareness of the plight of the bog turtle in New Jersey. They have written hundreds of letters, to students at other schools and to local and state officials, calling for the bog turtle to be protected as the first New Jersey state reptile. The Princeton elementary students joined Bateman to testify in support of his Senate bill on March 26 and, along with Eastburn, testified in favor of the legislation as it passed the state Senate in April. In May they followed through with Zwicker at Assembly hearings and in supporting passage at the final Assembly vote.

“This showed us that every person in our state has a voice as long as we are willing to speak up,” said Acevedo.

Praising the students and their sustained collaborative efforts, Murphy said, “Who says we can’t get things done? Democrats, Republicans, and the press are united on this issue. Throughout this process you’ve learned that anyone with a good idea can see that idea become a law. You’ve learned that good laws don’t happen fast, and that’s not all bad. We want to make sure that when we do things we do them right. You’ve learned that to make a law you have to work together.”

Praising the students and noting the bipartisan process in action, Bateman added, ”When you came down to Trenton and testified before the Senate, that was the best testimony I’ve heard. If you were down there more often we’d probably get a lot more done.”

Calling for a show of hands for the dozens of student who had come to the statehouse to testify and the hundreds who had written letters, Zwicker noted, “I just want to say that slow and steady wins the race.”

Commenting on the success of the project, Eastburn said, “This really challenged the students. I wanted to get my students involved in a way that wasn’t a partisan issue. The students organized themselves in a politically astute way. They reached out to schools across the state to raise awareness. They learned how you get a bill moving and make it happen. They really understood the legislative process, and many now have political ambitions.”

He continued, “I also worried about them losing contact with nature and losing concern for nature. It was energizing for me that they could have this passionate concern for nature.”

One of the smallest and rarest turtles in North America, the bog turtle is endangered in New Jersey. Recognizing the need to protect the turtle from extinction, the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection have worked with land owners to preserve bog turtle habitats.

Noting that there are possibly as many as 1,000 bog turtles still in New Jersey but that their locations are kept secret, he stated that the new bill and the reptile’s new status “will have a positive impact on the bog turtle populations throughout the state.”

Addressing the students, Murphy concluded, “We’re lucky that we have great representatives ready to listen to young adults. Maybe because of this experience one day one of you will decide to run for office so you can be the one to turn someone’s good idea into a bill. Or maybe one of you will become governor and you’ll be able to sign a good bill into law. I’m proud of you, and I congratulate you.”