GT habitat IS indigo habitat.

First let me plug this group:



Gopher Tortoise Council (www.gophertortoisecouncil.org)

Anyone who cares about wild indigo conservation should consider joining this group. They do an excellent job working to assist the tortoises and their critical habitat, which of course is equally critical to the eastern indigo.



Please read the following message sent to me by a tortoise conservationist. Seems we are at a critical point in Florida habitat conservation:





Dear Fellow Turtle Conservationists:



The decline of the gopher tortoise and loss of its upland habitat has become a conservation crisis in Florida. Although the State of Florida lists the gopher tortoise as a Species of Special Concern with harvest prohibited since 1988, tortoise populations continue to decline due to habitat loss and direct mortality as a result of commercial and real estate development.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation (FFWCC) has jurisdiction over protecting gopher tortoises and is legally required to ensure long term viability of the gopher tortoise in Florida. Currently, the FWC allows developers to obtain “incidental take” permits to destroy gopher tortoises and their habitat on development sites. This means they can directly kill tortoises by bulldozing, etc if they pay a fee to the FFWCC to purchase gopher tortoise habitat elsewhere. (only 15-20% of the area that they are destroying). This happens frequently in all Florida Counties. The developers can also choose to relocate tortoises to another site where they often wander off the relocation site and are killed on roads or die from disease. These “management options” have been in place since the early 1990’s but it is clear that the management plan is not working and the gopher tortoise is in greater jeopardy than it was just 10 years ago. Regional extinctions are very possible in the next 10 years if something does not change quickly. The FWC’s own biologists have estimated that tortoise populations in Florida have declined greater than 50% over the last three generations and loss of > 80% of its habitat in the last 100 years.

In the next few months, the FFWCC will be evaluating the gopher tortoise management plan and the policy of incidental take permits and relocation. They will also consider uplisting the gopher tortoise to a “Threatened” species in Florida.

Powerful development interest in Florida are fighting to prevent further protection and are even proposing down listing the tortoise to take it completely off the protected list!

HERE IS WHAT YOU CAN DO IMMEDIATELY:

Email or write Ken Haddad, Executive Director of the Florida Fish and

Wildlife Conservation Commission (address and email below) to demand the

following

1. FFWCC immediately uplist the gopher tortoise to “Threatened” status 2.

Immediately issue a moratorium on all “incidental take” permits 3. Require

greater protection of gopher tortoise populations in the new management

plan, with greater emphasis on protecting existing tortoise

populations rather than relocation

4. Join the Gopher Tortoise Council (www.gophertortoisecouncil.org)

If you can, please also write to the FFWCC Commissioners (listed below) who are politically appointed body that make these critical decisions on species listing and need to hear from people other than real estate developers.

The future of the gopher tortoise in Florida depends on generating unified public support that can change current policies and counter the money and influence of real estate developers.

Please forward this message to others that may be interested in helping with this issue. Thank you for your help.

Matt Aresco

Ken Haddad

Executive Director FFWCC

Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation

Commission, 620 S. Meridian St.

Tallahassee, FL 32399-1600

E-Mail: ken.haddad@fwc.state.fl.us

(727) 896-8626

(727) 893-2947 Fax





Mr. David K. Meehan

St. Petersburg Commissioner FFWCC

P.O. Box 15707

St. Petersburg, FL 33733

E-mail: dkmeehan@bankersinsurance.com

Work (727) 823-4000 Ext. 4202

Fax: (727) 823-6518



Mr. John D. Rood

Jacksonville Commissioner FFWCC

3020 Hartley Road, Suite 300

Jacksonville, FL 32257

E-mail:

Work (904) 260-4488

Fax: (904) 880-7718



Dr. Edwin P. Roberts

Pensacola Commissioner/Chairman FFWCC

730 Warrington Road

Pensacola, FL 32506

E-mail: robertschiro@robertschiropractic.com

Work (850) 456-4788

Fax: (850) 456-6066



Mr. H.A. “Herky” Huffman

Deltona Commissioner FFWCC

821 DeBary Avenue

Daytona, FL 32725

E-mail: herkyfwcc@aol.com

Work (407) 668-5662

Fax: (407) 668-2361

Home: (407) 323-1360



Richard A. Corbett

Tampa Commissioner FFWCC



Sandra T. Kaupe

Palm Beach Commissioner FFWCC

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