NEWS-JOURNAL (Daytona Beach, Florida) 10 July 05 Gopher tortoise population rises at park (Aaron London)

Flagler Beach: If you build the habitat, they will breed.

That seems to be the case for the gopher tortoise population at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area in Flagler Beach.

While park workers have counted 27 tortoises, that number is expected to top 35 this year considering the number of hatchlings found.

Bucking the species trend in Florida, gopher tortoise numbers have bounced back in recent years, said park manager Mike Evans.

"In fact, it has nearly doubled," Evans said Friday. "We're just amazed at how many different ones we've spotted."

The park's population explosion is a byproduct of efforts to create more habitat for scrub jays, Evans said.

"We have been doing a lot of prescribed burning," he said. "The gophers are getting more sunlight, more vegetation low to the ground. If you have more habitat, more nesting sites and more things to eat, you're going to have population growth."

While not officially an endangered species, Florida gopher tortoises are listed as a species of special concern. But the concern goes beyond their population.

"Gopher tortoises are a keystone species, which means other species rely on them for survival in a particular habitat," said Becky Smith, co-chairwoman of the Gopher Tortoise Council. "Several animals, such as snakes, frogs and insects, use the gopher tortoise's burrows."

"If you lose your gopher tortoise population in an area, it will affect your whole ecology," she said.

But, while the tortoise population inside Gamble Rogers is on the rise, the overall population is in decline. And development serves as the biggest threat in Florida.

"The animals live in upland habitats, not in wetlands," Smith said. "It's easier and cheaper for developers to develop uplands."

Last month, a gopher tortoise habitat fell victim to development in Edgewater.

The nests were on the edge of a motel construction site, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission gave the developer a permit for the incidental taking, which allow limited accidental killing of gopher tortoises, to the property owner.

The commission issued 45 take permits for gopher tortoises for Flagler County and 50 for Volusia last year.

Since the commission began its gopher tortoise program 14 years ago, 1,837 incidental take permits have been issued and 67,882 tortoises have been killed or relocated, officials say. Developers have paid $39 million for the permits.

At Gamble Rogers, Evans said the park considers its different animal habitats when it plans for the future.

"When we sit down and look at our resource management plan, we take into account the gopher tortoise population," he said.

And although their population numbers are declining overall, Evans said, gopher tortoises are actually quite resilient. He said the work on establishing habitats for the gopher tortoise was not affected by last year's hurricanes.

"The gopher tortoise has been around for a long time," he said. "The only thing that really causes any harm to its habitats is man."
Gopher tortoise population rises at park

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• FL Press: Gopher tortoise population rises at park - W von Papineäu, Sun Jul 10 20:33:37 2005