About Our Logo:

Virginia Forest Watch's logo was designed by Rob Messick , an old-growth surveyor and graphic artist from Asheville, NC. The logo concept grew out of VAFW's 2000 Annual Meeting, during which we drafted our Strategic Plan. The turtle represents our vision for the forests of the future wild and diverse, intact and evolving, supporting and supported by sustainable human communities all growing on the back of Turtle Island, our continent, our planet.

Turtle Island is a Native American concept, described in different stories by different tribes. Here is one version:

Once the world was covered with salt water like a big sea. The creator was alone with "Turtle" on a raft. He told Turtle to dive into the water and see what he could find. Three times Turtle dove, and found nothing. On the fourth day he made his dive and pushed deeper through changing colors of water until he felt something. He was gone a long time, and when he returned to the raft, he seemed more dead than alive. When he was pulled onto the raft, small bits of mud were found under the nails of his hands and feet.

They gathered the mud, rolled it into a ball, flattened it, and placed it upon the water. The little mud patty swelled and grew until it was the size of the world, with all the rivers, lakes and mountains; so the continent of North America was born and came to be called "Turtle Island."