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URTD TESTING TO DETERMINE TAKE OR RELOCATION WILL HALT OFFICIALLY AUGUST 15, 2006
After years of working
to have this policy stopped after it became evident that neither the test
or the disease was what they were originally described, the testing rule
has caused the deaths of thousands of tortoises. This was the first of
three WHAMMIES. The second is the amount of funds received from the
Incidental Take Permits has been a pittance of what money would be
required to replace habitat. The third blow has been the discouragement
of federal, state, and local governments and private landowners to allow
relocation of displaced tortoises on their properties. As one person put
it, people seem to have been brainwashed as though they were in some
crazed cult.
MORE BATTLES TO TAKE ON
The other problem that has always been the primary reason for the
incidental take policy has been our inability to successfully relocate
tortoises. However, ABRPI and others have undertaken long term studies on
how to conduct successful relocation. The methods stem from a conference
that ABRPI along with other conservation organizations sponsored on
Chelonian relocation. Among those that help set policy were Earl McCoy and
Henry Mushinsky, USF, Peter Pritchard and Andres Rhodin, Chelonian
Institute, David Lee, Tortoise Reserve, Kurt Buhlmann, SREL, and the
Ashtons amount many others. They established the guidelines for what is
required for developing proper tortoise relocation plans call Assurance
Colonies. Others have demonstrated that the tortoises must be enclosed on
the relocation site for 6 months to allow their built in GPS to reorganize
so they are not running toward their old burrows. Now that we have the
science fairly well worked out and some well planned additional studies
supported by MC Davis and managed by Matt Aresco from Lake Jackson fame
and Pat Ashton has along with the help of others, come up with ways to
determine how good the habitat is on a recipient site, we can do it right!
The battle now is to get the word out to people who could take tortoises on
their properties so that they will not be entombed under a development.
Stay tuned. We have some great news for all of you who want to have
tortoises in your neighborhoods as well as protecting them in pristine
habitats.
Finally, I want to thank all of the folks out there that have given us
encouragement, support, and the desire to move forward with advocating for
a new way of doing conservation in the state of Florida.
NEXT PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THE MANAGEMENT PLAN.
Key points to use in response to these are coming soon! Due AUGUST 5 |
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