Editorial Comment

We welcome you to a new era for Chelonian Conservation and Biology, as we embark on our co-publishing arrangement between Chelonian Research Foundation and Allen Press and its publishing division, Alliance Communications Group. Start-up time took longer than we anticipated as we ironed out details and ramped up capability and staff. We are pleased to finally bring you the first issue of what we know will be a long and successful run. Our next issue will follow in about 6 months and we will maintain a semi-annual schedule for the foreseeable future, considering expanding to quarterly issues at some point down the road.

As we move forward with the journal, I am pleased to announce that Jeff Seminoff is stepping up from his Associate Editor role to become Co-Editor with me. He will focus his efforts on guiding all sea turtle papers from submission all the way to publication while I focus on papers on tortoises and freshwater turtles while maintaining a general overview of all papers. By dividing our duties we should gradually improve our production efficiency.

Joining the Editorial Review Board as new members are Ernst H.W. Baard, Nancy N. FitzSimmons, Uwe Fritz, Fredric J. Janzen, Kenneth J. Lohmann, Luca Luiselli, and Vivian P. Páez. We welcome them all to the team. In addition, Shelby Rogers and Melissa Rodenbeek at Alliance Communications Group are providing the leadership and Managing Editorial skills for final production and dissemination of the journal. We could not do this without them.

At the same time that we transition into this new and exciting publishing arrangement, we tragically lose one of our founding fathers in the untimely loss of John Behler, who died on January 31 from heart failure at the age of 62. It is with heavy heart that I consider all that he meant to me personally and to turtle conservation in general. As I wrote to the membership of the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group (TFTSG) on the day he died:

Bells Toll for Turtle Conservation. —

I have just heard ... the overwhelmingly sad news that John Behler passed away this morning.

The bells toll for his passing, for the loss to turtle conservation, for the loss to us his friends and colleagues, and to Deb his wife, and family.

He was more than a leader in the world of turtle conservation—he was a dear friend and trusted mentor and he will be sorely missed.

He was a staunch supporter and leader for the TFTSG. He opened the doors to the turtle conservation world for me and many others. I will always treasure his memory and the opportunities he helped create. His heart was always there for turtles and their plight and he sounded one of the earliest calls-to-action for the Asian Turtle Crisis.

Let us celebrate his memory and take inspiration from his life of devotion to his ideals. And let us never forget his contributions and his leadership and the spirit which moved him to be one of the true heroes in the world of turtle conservation.

The bells toll his passing.......

John was more than a friend and colleague, he was a mentor and facilitator, and he helped open the doors for me to the world of turtle conservation. Specifically, back in 1991, when he was the newly appointed Chair of the TFTSG, and we were both attending a meeting of the Desert Tortoise Council in Las Vegas, he invited me to step up my involvement in the Group by appointing me to be one of several Deputy Chairs. I left the meeting feeling inspired and valued and wanting to increase my involvement and contributions to turtle conservation—on the flight home I envisioned the creation of Chelonian Research Foundation (CRF), so that I would have a proper organization with which to pursue turtle conservation and philanthropy at the same time. With the further help and advice of Peter Pritchard, Robert Truland, and Russ Mittermeier, I successfully founded CRF in 1992. It may not have happened without the inspiration of John Behler's support and encouragement.

Later, in 1993, after CRF had been established, I approached John about the need for a turtle-focused peer-reviewed publication that I wanted to publish and name Chelonian Conservation and Biology. Some that I had approached previously had felt that the effort was superfluous—there were already enough herpetological journals out there. But John felt otherwise—he concurred that our turtle community needed a dedicated professional publication and he placed his considerable personal support behind the project, encouraged me to proceed, agreed to head up the initial editorial team, and helped this journal succeed. Once again, it may not have happened without the inspiration of John Behler's support and encouragement.

We now mourn his passing, but take comfort in the knowledge that he succeeded in making a difference, and that the world of turtle conservation is the better for his involvement. May we all aspire to such goals.