Southern Gopher tortoises should be listed as endangered, groups say: NPR

A gopher tortoise is seen at the San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park in Gainesville, Florida. Gopher tortoises that are threatened by habitat loss and development should be placed on the endangered species list in four southern states, environmental groups said Wednesday.

US Fish and Wildlife Service via AP

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US Fish and Wildlife Service via AP

A gopher tortoise is seen at the San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park in Gainesville, Florida. Gopher tortoises that are threatened by habitat loss and development should be placed on the endangered species list in four southern states, environmental groups said Wednesday.

US Fish and Wildlife Service via AP

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Gopher tortoises threatened by habitat loss caused largely by human development should be placed on the endangered species list in four southern states, environmental groups said Wednesday as they prepare to sue the federal government about it.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Nokuse Education has filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its decision last year not to list the gopher tortoise as endangered or threatened in Florida, Georgia, in South Carolina and eastern Alabama.

The center noted that there are some state-level protections for burrowing turtles, but these generally require the animals to be moved from a development site and do not protect their habitat as a whole. Turtles have lost 97% of the swamp pine savannas where they have lived for millions of years in the South.

“Without the vital protection of the Endangered Species Act for our gopher tortoises, urban sprawl will drive them ever closer to extinction,” said attorney Elise Bennett, director of the center in Florida. .

The Fish and Wildlife Service has projected that 75% of the current population of gopher tortoises will be lost by 2100. The burrows they dig with shovel-like front legs, which can extend up to 30 feet ( 9 meters) underground, also support about 360 other species that use them.

The turtles are listed as endangered in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and western Alabama, but efforts to list them in their eastern range have proven unsuccessful.

The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded in October 2022 that “the risk factors acting on the gopher tortoise and its habitat, alone or in combination, are not of sufficient imminence, scope, or magnitude” to warrant threatened or endangered status. This decision led to the ongoing trial.

Gopher tortoises once inhabited more than 92 million acres (37 million hectares) of land in the southeastern United States, but now have only a fraction of that space due to human development, agriculture, climate change, invasive species and other issues, according to the center’s lawsuit. notice.

They can live to be 80 years old but are slowly reaching childbearing age.

An email seeking comment on the ongoing lawsuit has been sent to the Fish and Wildlife Service.