A MAJOR VICTORY FOR ALL AND THE CLOSING OF A DARK PERIOD IN CONSERVATION HISTORYWe here at the Institute and GTCI wish we could travel around the state and have victory parties with all of you. INCIDENTAL TAKE IS ALL BUT HISTORY!!!! Thousands of you have been busy emailing, writing and attending meetings and talking with us to demonstrate your wish to really conserve gopher tortoises and all the species that live with them. We have won the battle to stop URTD testing which was the crutch that kept FWC policy from changing. Now together we have joined with private landowners, developers and others to work together to take the next important step, TO MAKE SURE THAT THE FWC GOPHER TORTOISE MANAGEMENT PLAN IS BASED ON THE BEST MANAGEMENT AND MONITORING PRACTICES TO INSURE THE SUSTAINING OF THIS SPECIES AND ITS HABITATS IN PERPETUITY.
WE HAVE NOT YET WON THE WAR AND WE HAVE NOT ENSURED THAT OUR GOAL IS GOING TO BE MET. Danger signs are rising all over the place that indicate that what is now a good foundation plan to be presented to the Commission in September, may well not meet the criteria that will insure tortoise conservation for generations to come. More than twenty years ago, FWCC staff assured those of us with concerns about the details of how relocation and Incidental take were going to be handled that those details would be changed. It took more than 10 years for FWC to respond to the science that expressed concern about URTD and to require some kind of testing for URTD, but it then did not respond to the new information that had been acquired during that 10 years and in fact showed that URTD was not the problem original believed. But, if in fact the original URTD concerns had been correct far more tortoises would have died than ever were taken by Incidental Take due to the 10 year response time.
We are preparing a review of the materials in the plan and on what was prepared in haste by the attendees of the July stakeholders meeting. One of the great issues that is still being ignored is the Single Family Home or Five Tortoises or Fewer permits. The University of Florida Government Studies report recently released a report on Single Family Homes. This report indicated that there were 149,000 single family homes developed in 2006 alone. These ranged from less than one to several hundred acres. Meanwhile in the history of the current permitting system there have been around 7000 permits for this category. If there is only one tortoise per unit (not acres), the number far exceeds the reported losses by FWC. Just this one issue indicates just how much work has to be done and soon. GTCI has offered a comprehensive plan to FWC to consider but there has been virtually no dialogue or time spent really working this issue in the Stakeholder Group.
Without the general public’s concern and the constant reminders to the FWC and County Commissions around the state, this and other key issues like how to manage relocation as conservation tool for tortoises and their commensals in perpetuity will be overlooked or ignored in the final plan. Establishing an economically sustainable program that will support relocation monitoring and management can be done and in such a way that developers, agricultural interests and large landowners will support the effort. Again efforts to establish a working dialogue have been thwarted and the explanation of the FWC alternative plan has not been presented.
The first management plan was reviewed and commented on by more than 3000 people, the second plan by less than a thousand. We ask that you rise to the occasion and rally your folks to get the FWC and The Commission to demand that these key issues be resolved in a way that allows for good public input and time for ideas to be really examined thoroughly (but not in a seven day rush like the attempt that was made recently with the Stakeholders Group).
We all appreciate the work that has been done by the FWC. We hope that it demonstrates a new era where the staff uses science and public interest to develop real workable policies. We need to take a few more months and “Get-ER-Done” right. After twenty years of waiting, these changes will seal the fate of this keystone species and if it takes another ten or twenty years to correct mistakes there may be no tortoises or commensals left to save. |
