Protecting Our Tortoises

They showed up with picks, shovels, mallets, and loppers. They even had a Ditch Witch for trenching. An Audubon of Western Everglades-led crew worked Wednesday and Thursday, July 6th and 7th installing a short silt fence around the perimeter of four properties on South Barfield Drive, next to Publix. The hope is that the temporary fence will help protect gopher tortoises that often fall into peril when attempting to cross South Barfield Drive. 

Meanwhile, bigger things may be in store for the South Barfield properties, as the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Program on Wednesday rated all four of the properties highly enough on their acquisition list to move them forward in the process.

Conservation Collier is a Collier County Government program with a mission to "acquire, preserve, restore and maintain vital and significant threatened natural lands, forest, upland and wetland communities located in Collier County, for the benefit of present and future generations,” according to their website, www.colliergov.net/conservationcollier.

“This was an Audubon-led project,” said Brittney Piersma, field biologist for Audubon Western Everglades (AWE), of the fence installation project. “It was done in cooperation with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Florida Fish and Wildlife (FWC), all of our volunteers and various citizens from the area who want to help out.”

Piersma said city councilor, Rich Blonna, has been instrumental in making the project happen. 

"I want to give Rich Blonna credit,” Piersma said. "To get the owner of the properties permission was really the biggest achievement, and that was fully on Blonna. He reached out to the realtor, he made the connection with the owner, and he and Brad Cornell spoke to the owner about doing the fencing.”

Brad Cornell is a Southwest Florida Policy Associate for Audubon Florida.

"The fact that the owner allowed us to install the fencing was the only saving grace for us to be able to put this up,” Piersma said. "It’s amazing that the owner of those properties allowed us to put the fence there. That was the biggest support we had. And of course working with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. They helped us out by renting the Ditch Witch for us. Audubon of Western Everglades bought all the fencing. Most of the volunteers were from Audubon, because we had such an amazing and large group of volunteers. It was a combined effort.”

Armed with information from Piersma, Blonna went to work not just at the South Barfield location, but at locations throughout the island.

"Brittany gave me a list of all the endangered lots,” Rich Blonna said. "There were 25 properties. I drove the island. I went to all of the lots. And the ones that had for sale signs on them, whether private owners or real estate companies, I called them all. I called this guy (on South Barfield) and asked if he knew about Conservation Collier. He didn’t.”

"Conservation Collier is a program run by the county where we can acquire these lots and preserve them rather than sell them for commercial development,” continued Blonna. "He said he didn’t know anything about it. I spent an hour and a half telling him all about Conservation Collier. He actually went out and convinced the owner to nominate these properties and take them off of the commercial market. I think I have two other pieces of property nominated this way by dealing with the owners who didn’t know anything about Conservation Collier.”

"I asked the owner of the South Barfield properties if he’d mind if we put up a fence to keep the tortoises in,” Blonna said. "He said, ’No, as long as you guys pay for it and install it, you can put up the fence.' The city gave us a temporary permit to be able to do it. So hopefully we’ll be able to prevent any more gopher tortoises from wandering into the road and getting hit."

Nancy Richie, owner of Island Environmental & Marine Services, LLC is part of the fencing effort.

“It takes a lot of people,” Nancy Richie said. "None of us had fencing experience and now we all know how to do fencing. This area is where all of those tortoises were getting run over.”

 Richie, a former environmental specialist at the City of Marco Island, said she has asked the city for help at the South Barfield location.

"We asked for speed bumps,” Richie said. "We asked for fencing. They did install tortoise crossing signs. The police put up a sign for speed limit and they said no one was speeding. We asked if they could slow the speed limit down to 20 or 25.”

The four lots on South Barfield are heavily populated with Gopher Tortoises in addition to other wildlife.

"This piece of property has Bald Eagles,” Richie said, "successful two years in a row now raising their young. Burrowing Owls are using it. Of course there are close to 200 gopher tortoise burrows. These folks have come to the conclusion that they’re going to sell their land to Conservation Collier. Hopefully, Conservation Collier will approve that purchase and this will become Conservation Collier’s land. I wrote most of the city’s wildlife ordinances back in the day. Maybe once it’s Conservation Collier’s property we will be able to get a more permanent style of fencing. This is construction or silt fencing. We’re putting it at about a six inch to eight-inch depth, burying the bottom edge, because gopher tortoises are burrowing animals. This will have to be maintained, as you see around the island, for weather and wind. Hopefully, it’s going to redirect tortoises so they don’t want to cross the street. They’re crossing the street to go forage. Unfortunately, this road has become busier and busier. It’s vehicles versus tortoises. One landowner owns four parcels."

Piersma said AWE has conducted 231 surveys on Marco Island.

"We have counted in those surveys 2,465 potentially occupied burrows,” Piersma said. "That means the burrow’s open, it’s useable. It doesn’t mean the tortoise is living in it at the second, it means that it is accessible habitat.”

“The estimated number of tortoises from those surveys is 1,233,” continued Piersma. “You assume that each tortoise has about two burrows. It appears from our research that even when they have the opportunity to go to other spaces, they live very densely on Marco Island. Almost every survey that I’ve done, they have other lots that they could move to, but they live in these dense populations. We also have 402 abandoned burrows. Abandoned burrows are completely normal and natural. Over time, with rain over wash, or if it collapses for some reason.” 

There have been 28 Gopher Tortoises killed on the island since November of 2021. Piersma reminds citizens to be on the lookout for gopher tortoises crossing the road island-wide. She said it’s okay to assist a tortoise that is crossing the road, but safety awareness is paramount.

 “I think the most important thing is for people to keep their eyes out as they’re driving,” Piersma said. "These tortoises are only out during the day. They’re not going to be out at night. Most of them that are crossing the roadway are going to be large. The hatchlings tend to stay close to their burrows. So you’re going to be looking for a large thing that looks like a rock that’s walking across the road. The best thing is to stop your car safely, put on your flashers, and avoid getting yourself injured. Take the tortoise the direction it is going. You never want to turn a tortoise around because it’s always going to turn back around.”

Piersma says the South Barfield lots are a great testing ground.

“Of course this is just one small stretch,” Piersma said. "This is our target area, we’ve had the most tortoises hit here out of all the areas of the island. We’ll see how it works and just promote more awareness on the island. Our goal is to put up temporary silt fencing to see if it will help restricting the mortality of tortoises that are coming over the roadway. There’s a lot of people that are definitely excited about this, to see if this will help them out at all. To prevent mortality."