Gopher Tortoise

SOBS is working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s gopher tortoise stakeholder group to help FWC draft improved regulations for gopher tortoise management.

Our focal concern is that the relocation procedures be designed in such a way as to facilitate reestablishment and maintenance of optimum gopher tortoise populations in the forest, recognizing that the sandhill ecosystem needs these “keystone species” tortoises as much as the tortoises need the habitat.

[To be added: Much more about gopher tortoise conservation needs and protection efforts with position statements and links to partner organizations.]