Gopher tortoises settle in after big move from East Naples (Eric Staats)

NAPLES DAILY NEWS (Florida) 17 April 08 Gopher tortoises settle in after big move from East Naples (Eric Staats)
Gopher tortoises are settling into new digs this week at the Naples Preserve after being plucked out of harm’s way in East Naples.
A state permit allows Stock Development to relocate up to 10 tortoises, a threatened species, to a fenced-in city-owned chunk of scrub habitat south of Coastal Center mall to make room for a 200-acre neighborhood planned at Lely Resort.
The tortoises fill a gap in the ecosystem at the city-owned preserve but have raised questions about how far the city preserve should go to help out developers mitigating environmental damage in other parts of Collier County.
Preserve volunteer Ron Echols, 70, a Collier native, said the tortoises will be a welcome focal point for the preserve.
“It’s a home, and these guys needed a home,” Echols said.
Stock Development environmental consultant Tom Trettis has moved five tortoises to the preserve so far, including two female tortoises Thursday, joining what is thought to be two tortoises already crawling around the preserve.
Trettis delivered the two tortoises in cardboard boxes in the back of a Toyota pickup. Before releasing the tortoises, Trettis flipped them upside down on the tailgate to measure them and identify their gender.
Trettis drilled tiny holes along the edge of the tortoises’ shells. Each tortoise has a different pattern of holes to identify them. The pieces of shell will be sent to Florida Gulf Coast University for a study on genetic differences among tortoise subpopulations.
Habitat loss and road kills prompted the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to move the tortoise from its list of species of special concern to threatened status in 2007.
Linked to that decision was an end to the state’s practice of issuing permits to allow developers to pay a fee to crush or bury the tortoises rather than relocate them. Even before that, Collier County required that tortoises be relocated.
Finding places to put the tortoises has been a challenge for developers, Trettis said.
“I think you can’t go wrong (with the Naples Preserve site),” he said.
The Naples Preserve is much better habitat than is available at Lely Resort, where the tortoises would have been at risk of being run over by cars or injured by pets, he said.
Stock Development paid about $20,000 to install a knee-high, black chain link fence around the preserve to keep the tortoises from wandering into traffic.
The preserve’s sandy soil is perfect for tortoises to dig their extensive underground homes. The preserve has an abundant food supply for the vegetarian tortoises, including saw palmetto and prickly pear cactus.
Naples voters agreed in 2000 to tax themselves to buy the eight-acre preserve between U.S. 41 and 10th Street North for $9 million.
Naples Councilwoman Penny Taylor, a member of a disbanded preserve steering committee, said the committee didn’t want the preserve to become “an easy dumping ground’’ for developers.
Taylor said she supports giving the Lely Resort tortoises a home at the preserve because their burrows provide homes for other critters — snakes, frogs, armadillos, opossums, to name a few — a need left largely unmet at the preserve now.
She said she would leave it up to Naples Natural Resources Manager Mike Bauer to determine how many tortoises are too many.
“I guess this time wouldn’t hurt,’’ she said.
Bauer said he would not support taking any more than the Lely Resort tortoises until the city can see how the new residents take to their new home.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/apr/17/gopher-tortoises-settle-after-big-move-east-naples/