By Taylor Boyd
As warmer spring weather approaches, Bernie, the eastern box turtle who serves as animal ambassador at Fairy Stone State Park, may soon be waking from his winter brumation in a new outdoor enclosure.
Park Manager Adam Layman said Bernie will stay burrowed down in his enclosure through the winter.
“We check on him just about weekly, and he’s doing well through the winter. He’s doing what turtles do right now,” he said.
Bernie’s been a park resident since spring 2024.
The Friends of Fairy Stone State Park, a group focused on organizing events and improvement projects at the park, built the enclosure in mid-2025.
“The project was to build a permanent outdoor enclosure where he’s able to stay year-round without us needing to potentially take him out of that space during the winter,” O’Keefe said, and added the goal was to complete the enclosure built by winter.
The outdoor enclosure was needed so that when Bernie went into hibernation, he had a deep enough spot to dig down and hibernate in.
“Naturally, he’ll need a space where he can pick more than one location. Something that we’ve recently learned is that box turtles won’t hibernate in the same space. They’ll pick a different location to lay down in each year,” he said, adding the enclosure is “big enough right now that he’s got plenty of space to move around in.”
To ensure Bernie doesn’t dig out of the enclosure when he burrows for his hibernation period, fabric lines its bottom.
While Bernie doesn’t need anything else besides the enclosure, O’Keefe said the next step will probably be getting more supplies to put inside the enclosure.
“Possibly a terracotta pot for him to hide out in and maybe some other plants that we can line the space with,” he added.
To improve Bernie’s territory, Layman said the park hopes to do more landscaping in the spring.
“We’ll have some more information and ask for some volunteer help with that once we get it all lined up and get some dates set for that,” he said.
Before the outdoor enclosure was completed, Bernie stayed in a small terrarium inside one of the park buildings.
A donation from Clark Gas & Oil made the enclosure project possible, O’Keefe said.
The Friends of Fairy Stone group, which worked to complete the project, has between 80 and 100 members.
“Out of that group we had a committee that was focused specifically on this project,” O’Keefe said, adding about 20 people served on the committee.
For more information about the group, go to Facebook.com/FriendsofFairyStoneStatePark.
About 20 volunteers from the Friends of Fairy Stone State Park group and some park staff worked to prepare Bernie’s enclosure. The goal now is to add more landscaping in the spring.
Bernie the Eastern Box Turtle is hibernating in a new enclosure, having moved from a small terrarium to his new home. Photos contributed by Fairy Stone State Park.
