In the early 80's I ask the State of Fl.if I could capture and keep the Gopher tortoises that were fleeing the heavy land development of Duval county Fl. were I lived, worked in construction, and saw daily the mass movment of the G.T.(the clear cutting day's of cooky cutter homes). I stated "only the G.T.crossing roads to other ares being distroyed would be captured. I had the land to do it and that I'd give them the offspring for them to replace the dwendling population they kept talking about. Other land owners said they would do the same with no intent of selling,eating or dumping them at random places. This was before the U.R.V. Their answer, word for word was, "we dont permit the taking of G.T.from the forest". That was it, it said nothing else! Fast forward fifteen years. I get a letter Dear Mr.Morgan would you be intrested in taking G.T. from unknow areas that people find on the road and keep bringing to us, as we are concerned of spreading a virus they may have. I told them I was working with an Asian Tortoise now and could not risk the contamanation. Habitat distruction, deadly virus, it would have been nice to have a closed colony from myself and others but they blew us off. This has bothered me for some thirty years now. As Tom said the G.T.best friend, Ray Ashton just left us last month. Vic Morgan.........pic when being inspected by the Fl.f and w com.one time the agent asked me to drag some of these out of their hut so she could make sure they were not Gopher torts.

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