Efforts to save gopher tortoises continue

Monday, May 7, 2007

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If the Incidental Take program is suspended, developers would have the responsibility of relocating displaced tortoises.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officials plan to upgrade the status of gopher tortoises from a species of special concern to threatened, which is a step below endangered. Meanwhile, plans to further boost their population are in high gear.

"Unfortunately, the gopher tortoise occupy these high, dry sites that also support people very well and there's kind of an inherent conflict," said FWC regional director Greg Holder.

The FWC blames the tortoises' situation on a loss of habitat, while others say it's because the FWC allows developers to literally pave over construction areas where gopher tortoises live as long as they pay for habitat elsewhere.

The Incidental Take program started in 1991 and has allowed developers to pave over sites where approximately 94,000 tortoises were living in Florida. That caused tortoises to eventually suffocate in their burrows.

FWC officials will make a recommendation to the FWC's board regarding the permit program in June.

"Suspend the incidental take and require everyone that gets gopher tortoise permits to relocate those animals," said Holder.

If passed, the plan would go into effect at the end of July. In an effort to get grandfathered in, the number of applications the FWC has received to pave over tortoises has increased from five a week to eight.

Abigail Applteon of the Pinellas County Humane Society disagrees with the permits being issued.

"We feel this is not a human way to deal with them," said Appleton. "We'll be very happy for this legislation or permits to come to an end."