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Washington Post article:
Link

Thanks for posting that. I hope the one line, box turtles appear to be headed toward extinction, to paraphrase, was just an exageration by the author or by this ICC. It gives you a sicking feeling in your stomach when you hear or read those words.

Well, if the laws of protection they keep passing do nothing but shut down captive breeding then they could be right. Maybe they could go extinct since these laws do nothing about any of the real problems that box turtles face like development and fire ants and so on. A law that says protection is given without really protecting them from the things that are really at the heart of the decline is worthless in the long run. Also when these laws prohibit keeping them and therefor breeding them in captivity it is just a double whammy against the box turtles. Better reasoning is needed. You can restrict large scale commercial collecting without shutting down captive breeding.
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Noah was the first snake collector. ~Eric~

"...do nothing but shut down captive breeding..."

I'm really not sure how you arrive at the conclusion that this is the *sole* result of any and every law that gives box turtles some protected status.

StephF, all one has to do to get what I mean is look at the laws Many States have passed. Most all only allow a small number of box turtles to be kept and even then do not allow for captive breeding.
I was told that the point of view by those in charge in most of these States is that there is no good being done in captive breeding the box turtles because they do not feel they could ever be released back into the wild. So they feel there is not a reason to keep them at all.
Most of these laws when passed do hurt captive breeders of box turtles. If they pass laws like this in your State they will not see you as a box turtles expert and give you lead way to keep doing it. They will do what they did to all of the others before you and tell them have to stop breeding them.
Maybe if you just look at the laws that have been passed and then make a few phone calls to those States and see what they tell you about captive breeding.
When you put something on a list that says it is protected that doesn't mean they are stopping development from killing them or any other kind of actual management of the species listed. It only means they have automatically made it so you are no longer allowed to have them. Thus basically only shutting down captive breeding. About the only good it may do is stop large scale pet store collection and that's about it. But this could have been done without shutting captive breeding down. They could do better if they would at least make some sort of special allowances for those that can do a good job of captive breeding box turtles but they do not as they hold the idea in mind that captive breeding is of no conservation value to the wild population.
So what I am saying is they should change there mind about captive breeding box turtles and make special allowances for it.
Did I do or say something wrong here StephF ? Or would you like to cheer them on to your State so they can shut you down to?
For the sake of conservation of box turtles we need to make them see the value in captive breeding and then make allowances for people that can do to do just that. You can't make the system better if you ignore the reality of the facts and then blindly cheer them on StephF.
It makes no since to me that you keep and breed box turtles and so many States have passed laws against it and you don't get that it has even happened or that it is not a good conservation move and needs to be corrected.
If you agree with them. then put your money where your mouth is and get rid of all of your box turtles so you can demonstrate how much you support there agenda rather than just attack anyone that has a better idea of how things could be done.
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Noah was the first snake collector. ~Eric~

There are plenty of states, including mine, that don't prohibit possession or breeding, however there are possession limits as well as prohibition of sale and/or prohibition of export/import.

You are absolutely right that such laws are virtually useless as a conservation tool in the face of human encroachment (land development, etc.), however it's important to remember that box turtles also face(d) tremendous pressures from collection for the pet trade until some of these rules were put in place.

SC still permits commercial collection, I think, but there are now limits.

It is imperfect indeed, but it is not fair or accurate to say that the ONLY effect has been shut down captive breeding. That simply isn't so.

...might have been 'extirpated', at least in the context of this article.

"But the ICC turtles have also revealed something more disturbing, he said. They appear to be headed for extinction, with or without the ICC."