Yeah it is. It works really well until they pistol whip a couple of customers in their pizzaria in Palm Coast. Then the game wardens have to step in and do something about it.
On a serious note when I first moved down here about 15 years ago, I went to a CFHS meeting in Orlando. The guest speaker was FWC biologist Paul Moler. I asked about the possibility of implementing an adoption program for Gopher Tortoises in Fl. similar to what they have in California.
His response to me... and I quote (and I have witnesses to back me up.) was "In 50 years they will all be gone so it doesn't matter anyway.". The impression I got from that answer was that the FWC has no interest in allowing private entities to do anything to help Gopher Tortoises especially if it is free and does not allow them to collect funds.
The really sick thing about it is that for years they would grant developers an incidental take permit that allowed them to bury as many gopher tortoises as they wanted on a piece of property they were developing for the paltry sum of $5000.
That's right folks if you or I wanted to keep a few of these tortoises alive and well on our property we would be guilty of what I seem to recall is a felony here in Fl. but for $5000 (assuming you were that special class of Fl. citizen known as a developer.) you could entomb them in the ground where it could take more than a year for them to slowly die.
When they were surveying the land for the interchange of I-4 and the 419 Just south of the "happiest place on Earth" a friend of mine who was working as a surveyor became aware of a large colony of Gopher Tortoises living on that piece of property. He informed his boss who told him if he ever mentioned it again he would be fired. I'm sure that happens a lot more than anyone realizes.

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