From the January 13 issue of the Boca Beacon:
Lee County Commissioner Bob Janes wants to tax Boca Grande residents to help fund a program to control or eliminate the island's iguanas. Janes' comments came Wednesday before an audience of about 150 people gathered at the Boca Grande Community Center Auditorium for a meeting on the lizard problem sponsored by the Gasparilla Island Conservation and Improvement Association.
At the meeting, Janes - whose district includes Boca Grande - suggested turning the existing "streetlight" taxing district into a "streetlight and iguana" tax district.
"It may add a buck to your property taxes," Janes said during the meeting.
There are 1,538 properties in the Lee County portion of Boca Grande, Jane's $1 tax estimate would net $1,538 a year.
In a May 2004 memo, however, Scott Trebatoski, animal services director for Lee County, estimated the cost to remove just 2,000 iguanas from the island would be "at a minimum of $100,000 to $200,000."
Dr. Jerome Jackson, a Florida Gulf Coast University professor who has been studying the island iguana issue for the county, told the audience that there are likely now a minimum of 10,000 iguanas living in Boca Grande.
"Now they are everywhere," Jackson said.
On Thursday, Janes said his proposed tax would last "for a period of years." He said that the streetlight and iguana tax district would be "an administrative mechanism" that would allow the community to decide how to proceed with the control of the iguana population, including how much money would be needed.
Janes said that the cost of managing the iguana problem would be shouldered by property owners in Boca Grande and that Lee County would serve as a "resource," perhaps providing clerical help and advice.
At Wednesday's meeting, Cappy Warner, president of GICIA, asked for an informal show of hands to see who supported Janes' $1 tax proposal - the majority of the audience raised their hands.
Jackson - and Lori Williams, executive director of the National Invasive Species Council - offered suggestions to control the expanding iguana population on the island. Williams advocated formulating a plan based on research and data.
Williams said, "You just don't go out and identify them and start killing them." This drew cries of "why not?' from the crowd. One woman claimed to have already killed 24 of the reptiles. Her admission was met with applause. Another man claimed that he had an iguana in his trunk that he had captured that day.
The black spiny-tailed iguana is considered an invasive species because it is not native to the Florida ecosystem. Originally from Mexico, the iguana is believed to cause both environmental and economic harm outside of its native ecosystem. In Boca Grande, iguana burrows are feared to undermine the dune system as well as negatively impact native endangered species, such as the gopher tortoise. Since these animals are climbers, they have caused damage to homes and businesses by nesting in attics.
Both Williams and Jackson said that educating the public, including visitors to the island, is crucial to controlling this invasive, exotic species. During his research on the island, Jackson said that he saw people feeding the iguanas, both intentionally and unintentionally. Eliminating palatable landscaping and trash could help reduce iguana populations by starving them, which is particularly effective during the cooler months since the animals need more food to keep their metabolic rates up. Jackson also saw people deliberately feeding the reptiles, and he stressed that Boca Grande "desperately needs signage" that advises against this practice.
Jackson said, "I strongly encourage education and demonstration of humane treatment of iguanas." He admitted that shooting the iguanas is the most humane way to kill the animal, despite the fact that he wrongly told people last year that freezing them is a painless demise for iguanas. Furthermore, killing iguanas by freezing them is not legal in Florida.
Jackson's approach of controlling the iguana included trapping the animals, destroying nests, and the removal of the most prolific breeders, "the larger females and males." Large female iguanas lay more eggs than the smaller females.
The exploding iguana population is not isolated only to Boca Grande. The animal has been spotted on neighboring barrier islands, Rotonda, and a golf course in Fort Myers. To Jackson, "The dragons of Gasparilla are interesting, beautiful creatures, but out of place."
Original Article
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Scott Robert Ladd
0.2.0 Green Iguana (Tillie, Spruce)
1.1.0 African Giant Plated Lizard (Clyde, Cassie)
1.0.1 Uro mali (Wizard, Dizzy)
0.1.0 Corn Snake (Amber)
0.1.0 Red-Eared Sliders (Emerald)
0.0.1 Musk Turtle (Sausage)
0.1.0 Parakeet (Thor, Zeus)
1.4.0 Homo sapiens (Scott, Maria, Elora, Becky, Tessa)
blog: http://chaoticcoyote.blogspot.com/
