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Saving Slowpoke

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Barstow, CA
Saving Slowpoke

We are a grassroots initiative dedicated to protecting the Mojave Desert Tortoise and it's habitat here in the Mojave Desert.

Our goal is to accomplish this through community outreach and involvement, specifically in underrepresented communities.

05/23/2026

Happy World Turtle Day!

Everyday is turtle day for us but today is the day to appreciate all of our shelled friends.

“But it’s a tortoise” some of you might say. Well, tortoises ARE turtles. Tortoises represent a relatively recent diversification within a shared 260-million-year evolutionary journey with other turtles. They branched off from their aquatic cousins around 70 million years ago! So not that recent.

Our desert tortoise is the largest reptile in the southwestern states and also California’s state reptile. Without it on the landscape we would lose the desert as we know it. So you all caring so much about it and being willing to speak up for it is how you can save this small part of the world.

We have 8 native turtle species in the state of California (if you count sea turtles) and 9 if you are a believer in mud turtles. All of them deserve love and advocacy from us.

05/16/2026

Just a friendly (non-paid) endorsement of this tortoise food brand. This is what desert tortoise food should look like.

We get a lot of questions about what to feed desert tortoises. Our answer is almost always something alluding to trying to match what they eat in the wild. We like presenting information this way because it gives us a chance to also talk about tortoise biology and physiology to people who may only know these animals as “pets.”

Desert tortoises are primarily grass eaters. Yes, they eat annual leafy greens and flowers during certain parts of the year, and sure, they’ll nibble on cactus. But grasses make up roughly 70–80% of their natural diet. They need fiber-rich grasses.

Trying to guide people toward a consistently good commercial product is tough. Native grasses can be hard to source and don’t always thrive outside the desert.

Our tortoises LOVE this stuff and, honestly, as someone who has seen A LOT of wild tortoise poop… I gotta say I don’t see much of a difference. 🐢

holler at us! 😉

05/04/2026

New merch is here!!! 🐢

We just dropped more Saving Slowpoke gear!!
inspired by the tortoises we work to protect every day.

From our new “Torpography” design, to classic black logo hats and our Tortoise Check magnets, every piece helps spread awareness and supports conservation.

Every purchase directly supports our mission—helping us travel to offer free educational classes and care for our mascot animals!

Shop now at…
Savingslowpoke.org/shop

05/03/2026

We’ve been busy!

This spring has been one of the busiest outreach seasons we have ever had. We reached thousands of young people and their families so far. From school event to h**p societies, events for military families and scout groups, career fairs and even birthday parties. Thats no exaggeration either. Our total between February and today is 2,326 and we still have more outreach events in the calendar.

Not only have we been doing this outreach, but our team is always actively contributing to desert tortoise conservation in the field as well, through our careers. That’s why in the coming months we are planning on offering presentations more focused on tortoise/desert careers and sharing our experiences to help would be biologists and conservationists get an idea of what to focus on! Catch us at career days etc!

Big things are happening for us this year and we wanted to post this to thank all of you for your continued support over the years. We can grow because of all of you and your love for our Desert Tortoise.

Stay tuned for more updates over the next couple months!

🐢❤️

(All photos are posted with permission from parents, interactions with tortoises in the field are supervised and under state and federal permits)

08/29/2025

CALL TO ACTION: WE NEED YOUR VOICE TODAY!

The Soda Mountain Solar Project threatens our desert wildlife, communities, and the Mojave National Preserve. This project would destroy critical bighorn sheep habitat and set a dangerous precedent for more destructive development in one of the most fragile desert corridors. Though the project is largely going to affect bighorn sheep, keeping the desert landscape intact is also critical to surrounding desert tortoise populations, especially those within Mojave National Preserve.

📍 Meeting Details
🗓️ Today, 1-5PM (Public Comment around 4)
📍 Lenwood, California
🔗 to attend virtually is in our Bio!

We are urging everyone who cares about the desert, its wildlife, its water, and its rural communities like Baker, Newberry, and Barstow to either show up in person or call in to make your voice heard.

Our communities and wild places are too often dismissed as sacrifice zones for profit. Let’s remind decision makers that the desert is not disposable, and neither are the people who call it home.

Call in OR attend in person today at 1 PM in Glenwood. Your voice matters.

DM us if you’d like a quick drafted comment to read at the meeting.

Together, we can protect the Mojave and stop precedent-setting destruction before it begins.

08/20/2025

At Saving Slowpoke, we believe that connecting young people, especially those from Native communities, to the wildlife of the desert is essential to keeping culture, knowledge, and conservation alive.

Recently we yet again partnered with our dear friends at the Native American Land Conservancy to provide hands-on experiences with desert tortoises, snakes, and other desert life. Seeing kids light up as they meet these animals and build positive connections with them reminds us why this work matters: building respect, understanding, and love for the desert that will carry into future generations.

We are so grateful to walk alongside the NALC in this effort, and we look forward to more opportunities to connect community, culture, and conservation.

02/21/2025

In the Mojave, where the sun scorches the earth and water is a ghost, our favorite slow-moving survivor endures. The ancient and endlessly patient Desert Tortoise carves a life from the dust. It spends most of its days beneath the earth waiting, only emerging to eat and drink when the desert occasionally allows it.

The tortoise’s shell, worn by time, holds stories of survival… of outlasting drought, heat, and the unrelenting odds. It is a living miracle. In a world that rushes, it moves with purpose, proving that patience and resilience are the true measures of strength.

In uncertain times, we could learn from our friend the tortoise. Stand firm, move forward, and endure because survival isn’t just about the fight—it’s also about resilience.

01/24/2025

HUGE win for tortoises!

In case somehow you missed it in January 14th President Biden designated Chuckwalla National Monument, a 624,000 acre area just south of Joshua Tree National Park. Over 2/3rd of this new monument is designated as critical habitat for the Mojave Desert Tortoise and this area is also considered a vital conservation unit for the tortoise.

What does this mean?

This area was once a patchwork of different protected areas all with different levels of protection and management needs, it is now uniformly protected as a monument. That means ONE management plan will be drafted to best guide the bureau of land management on how they maintain this area for the foreseeable future.

We have spent so much time in this area and it truly is a paradise for desert tortoise and now it is a southern anchor for this amazing species!

Huge thank you to the coalition as well as well as all of YOU for accomplishing this massive success for our desert and the desert tortoise!

12/29/2024

Yes, we’ve been off the socials for a stretch. Life happens! But like the tortoises we love so much when resources become scarce we just take it easy and keep on hanging in there!

We also have some REALLY amazing news to share in the coming weeks. What we will say now is that resource availability is definitely changing in a positive way and we are looking at a new era of Saving Slowpoke! You will definitely be seeing more from us in 2025!

Until then, Happy New Year and as always, please hit our DM’s with any and all desert tortoise questions!

05/24/2024

Happy World Turtle Day!

To celebrate, please amplify and sign in to the petition in our bio!

Chuckwalla National Monument and the Expansion of Joshua Tree National Park would protect over 400,000 acres of critical habitat for the Mojave desert tortoise!

Let’s urge to sign this monument into existence using the Antiquities Act and give our tortoises a massive amount of protected habitat! If you haven’t heard, the Mojave Desert Tortoise was recently up-listed to Endangered under the California Endangered Species Act! So it is even MORE imperative that we protect as much habitat for them as possible!

Also follow to stay up to date on the monuments progress!

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