The Gopher Tortoise Conservation Initiative (GTCI) was begun 4 years ago when the Institute was approached by Mr. MC Davis, businessman and well known land conservationist to get a proactive gopher tortoise conservation program underway that would work with private landowners and citizens to encourage their involvement in conservation of uplands and gopher tortoises.

We accepted his challenge and began working on a marketing analysis to determine the best approaches to provide for the needs of people who care about tortoise conservation. We decided based on this information to develop several areas of service. Our first challenge was to write two books on gopher tortoises and their management.

These books are nearly complete with the “The Life History of the Gopher Tortoise” which has been reviewed and is nearly ready for publication (2003). The second book, “The Natural History and Management of the Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus)” is a semi-popular book (Krieger Publ.) which discusses all we know about the natural history of this species (and what we don’t) as a basis for providing a step-by-step “how to manage” gopher tortoises and their habitat. The other GTCI activities are listed below.