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The Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) Wednesday April 9,
2008 approved the
Gopher
Tortoise Permitting Guidelines, the first major step
in launching the gopher tortoise management plan approved
by the Commission last September. The FWC reclassified the
gopher tortoise to a threatened species last year, and the
management plan
serves as a blueprint to conserve the species.
This 62-page document
is a framework for helping Florida meet the
management plan
objective of decreasing gopher tortoise mortality on lands
proposed for development. The guidelines are intended to
be a single source for all policies and protocols
associated with the FWC’s gopher tortoise permitting
system.
Under the permitting
guidelines, gopher tortoises must be relocated out of
harm’s way by an authorized agent, who will obtain a
permit from the FWC. All permits will require some type
of mitigation contribution -- in the past, some permits
were at no cost.
The new permitting
system is designed to create incentives for those who
relocate gopher tortoises to protected land and thereby
provide higher conservation value for the tortoises. In
other words, those permit holders who move tortoises to
protected, high-quality, managed habitat, will contribute
the least for permits. That’s because the higher quality
the habitat, the better chance the tortoises will have to
perpetuate the species, which is the goal of the
management plan.
The permitting system
also is designed to help provide incentives to landowners
to manage their land for gopher tortoises and other native
wildlife species. Landowners who do so may qualify for
having their land certified and permitted as protected
recipient sites eligible for receiving displaced gopher
tortoises.
The Gopher Tortoise
Permitting Guidelines may be edited and updated as needed
in the future. Proposed changes will be reviewed annually
by an FWC standing team and a public stakeholder advisory
group. All changes require approval from the FWC executive
director, who will coordinate with the FWC chairman to
determine when changes to these guidelines are substantive
and warrant full review by FWC commissioners.
The Gopher Tortoise
Permitting Guidelines are available at
MyFWC.com/permits/Protected-Wildlife/permits.html#gophertortoise.
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