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Humane Society To The Rescue

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 11, 2008

HUDSON - Activists with The Humane Society of the United States removed more than 100 gopher tortoises during the weekend from property slated for development.

They were moved to Nokuse Plantation, a 48,000-acre preserve in Walton County in the state's Panhandle, said Jennifer Hobgood, state director for Florida's chapter of the animal advocacy group.

The 11-acre development site at State Road 52 and La Madera Boulevard had 114 tortoises, Hobgood said.

"It was an incredibly dense population," she said. "The state had estimated there were 39 tortoises out there."

The tortoise relocation was the second for the Humane Society, which has started a program to remove tortoises from development property where they might be killed, Hobgood said.

Pasco County ranks eighth in the state for the number of permits granted to allow developers to bury gopher tortoises. Pasco developers hold enough permits to bury more than 6,000 tortoises, state wildlife officials said.
State wildlife officials declared gopher tortoises a threatened species in 2007 and banned the long-established practice of burying them alive during development-related land preparation.

The change forced developers to find homes for tortoises or preserve them on-site. The Richman Group had a permit for development of the S.R. 52-La Madera Boulevard site when the law changed. Grandfathered projects are exempt from the no-bury mandate.

Richman plans to build 168 state-subsidized affordable-housing apartments.

Shannon Lee, Richman's development associate, said this week that the Connecticut-based apartment builder was prepared to bury the tortoises when the Humane Society came knocking.

"We didn't have the money to remove them," Lee said. "There was nowhere local to relocate them to."

Hobgood's group has begun approaching permit holders one at a time to strike relocation deals.

"I'm confident there are thousands of tortoises out there living on sites that have permits to destroy them," Hobgood said.

The Humane Society struck pay dirt last week with The Richman Group.

After a whirlwind effort to get a state relocation permit, Humane Society crews began work at Richman's 11-acre site Sept. 4. By Sunday, a combination of carefully handled backhoe work and digging by hand had removed all the creatures, Hobgood said.

By Monday, the animals were living behind a fence at Nokuse Plantation.

They will stay corralled until they settle into their home.

Unfenced tortoises are known to wander off in search of their original homes, Hobgood said.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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