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Developers must move tortoises
June 13, 2007
Contacts: Joy Hill (352) 258-3426 or Beth Scott (850) 251-3970
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission (FWC) commissioners today approved a policy that puts
an end to gopher tortoise entombment and requires developers to
relocate them.
Entombment occurs when construction activity
fills in or covers a gopher tortoise burrow, preventing escape
of tortoises and other animals that may be inside. FWC staff
developed the new policy with the help of stakeholders and the
public.
"We’ve listened to our stakeholders on this
issue and have developed a policy we believe meets the needs of
both Floridians and wildlife,” said Greg Holder, leader of FWC’s
gopher tortoise management plan team.
The interim policy will affect developers who
apply for incidental take permits after July 30. The policy will
also apply to anyone who has an incomplete incidental take
permit application before that date.
The policy is an interim measure that will
remain in effect until the FWC can begin a new permitting
process detailed in the gopher tortoise management plan. The
plan protects individual gopher tortoises by requiring
developers to relocate them in a way that ensures their
long-term survival. The plan protects gopher tortoise habitat
through conservation easements, and proposes habitat management
to make the number of tortoises that can live and reproduce in
relocated areas as high as possible.
Commissioners reviewed the plan today at their
meeting in Melbourne. The FWC will conduct a final public
hearing at a future meeting.
"In the meantime, the interim policy is needed
to reduce gopher tortoise deaths on development sites while we
progressively implement the permitting process proposed in the
gopher tortoise management plan,” Holder said. |
