Tag: Gopher Tortoise
The content below has been tagged with the term “Gopher Tortoise.”
Articles
Florida couple dedicates property to conservation
July 20, 2017 | 2 minute readBen and LouAnn Williams own approximately 3,400 acres of pinelands interspersed with bottomland hardwoods in Putnam County, Florida, between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach. Their property contributes to conservation on a regional scale because it is adjacent to publicly owned conservation areas, creating an important link in a chain of conservation lands from central Florida to the Georgia state line. Sandhill after prescribed burn. Photo by Ben Williams. In 2012, the Williams’ began establishing longleaf pine on their property and reintroduced prescribed burning. Learn more...
A gopher tortoise hiding in its shell. Photo by Ben Williams.
A gem for hunters and hikers alike
July 12, 2017 | 4 minute readBrunswick, Georgia – Altama Plantation is perhaps the most critical, and intriguing, piece of property along the entire Altamaha River corridor. It was here in the early 1800s that plantation owner James Hamilton Couper introduced the Dutch system of tidal floodgates to grow rice. He planted sugar cane and built a refinery whose red-brick remains still stand. Couper, a noted scientist, also recorded the first eastern indigo snake, a threatened species which bears his name (Drymarchon couperi). Learn more...
Altama Plantation. Photo by Nicole Vidal, USFWS.
Local landowner fights for the Altamaha
July 12, 2017 | 3 minute readJesup, Georgia – “Well now, welcome to the swamp.” Dink NeSmith stands astride a weathered wooden dock on Sandy Lake, a meandering offshoot of the Altamaha River. To some, the oxbow lake is nothing but a muddy, buggy, alligator-friendly bog. To NeSmith, it’s an open-air cathedral in all its natural “majesty.” “God put it here a long time ago,” he preached, “and it’s on loan to my family and me and we want to do our part to make sure it remains a clean, safe environment for our great, great, great, great grandchildren. Learn more...
Mr. Dink NeSmith has a special relationship with the Altamaha River. Photo by Nicole Vidal, USFWS.
Many partners work together to protect “the Amazon of the South” for generations to come
July 12, 2017 | 13 minute readIt meanders 137 miles through the wild heart of Georgia, a blackwater beauty that nourishes longleaf pine forests, cypress swamps, saltwater estuaries and the barrier islands that protect the Atlantic coast and migratory birds alike. Learn more...
Salt marsh along the Altamaha River. Photo by Nicole Vidal, USFWS.
The military embraces conservation
July 12, 2017 | 4 minute readTownsend, Georgia – U.S. Marine Corps jets and helicopters rain thousand-pound bombs and 30-caliber bullets on a slice of the Altamaha River corridor. Gopher tortoises, flatwood salamanders and eastern indigo snakes benefit mightily. Say what? Townsend bombing range. Photo by Nicole Vidal, USFWS. Welcome to a looking-glass world where bombs are good, the Pentagon is an environmental agency and the ever-expanding Townsend Bombing Range along the northwestern edge of the corridor protects critical greenways and endangered species. Learn more...
A tank littered with bullet holes at Townsend bombing range. Photo by Nicolve Vidal, USFWS.
A harmonious future for profits, pine and at-risk species along the Florida-Alabama line
May 9, 2017 | 7 minute readPace, Florida — Longleaf pine forests once covered 90 million acres from Virginia to Texas, a bio-diverse swath of timber prized by shipbuilders and gopher tortoises alike. Sprawling cities, large farms and commercial pine plantations, though, replaced much of the longleaf habitat. Today, less than five million acres remain. Conservationists’ goal of eight million acres by 2025 seemed laughable. Until Resource Management Service and Jimmy Bullock came along. Map of the Coastal Headwaters Forest by the Conservation Fund and RMS. Learn more...
A field of young longleaf pine at the Coastal Headwaters Forest. Photo by Dan Chapman, USFWS.
Biologists on bases: Fish and Wildlife joins the military
April 26, 2017 | 6 minute readMelanie Kaeser is embedded with the military at Tyndall Air Force Base. She patrols the pine forests and swampy wetlands as F-16s and F-22s maneuver overhead. Her mission: protect those in harm’s way - the gopher tortoises, the St. Andrews Beach mice and the Godfrey’s butterworts. Learn more...
Two F-22 Raptors from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., fly in formation. Photo by Senior Master Sgt. Thomas Meneguin, U.S. Air Force.
Protecting military readiness and the iconic gopher tortoise at the same time
March 24, 2017 | 6 minute readTifton, Georgia – There isn’t a military base for 50 miles, but the Army plays a critical role at the Alapaha River Wildlife Management Area. A first-in-the-nation conservation plan, crafted by the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and wildlife agencies in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, protects at-risk gopher tortoises here while helping military bases to continue training and testing missions across the tortoise’s Southern turf. Learn more...
Baby gopher tortoise. Photo by Randy Browning, USFWS.
News
Fish and Wildlife, the military and state of Florida boost conservation at Camp Blanding
April 6, 2017 | 3 minute readThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service joined Florida conservation and military officials Thursday in a voluntary effort to keep the striped newt, gopher tortoise and 20 other at-risk species from being federally listed as endangered. Read the full story...
Juvenile striped newt. Photo by FWC.
Service, Department of Defense adopt credit strategy for Southeast installations benefiting gopher tortoise and other species
March 24, 2017 | 2 minute readTifton, Ga. – A first-in- the-nation conservation plan, crafted by the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife agencies in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, protects at-risk gopher tortoises here while helping military bases to continue training and testing missions across the tortoise’s Southern turf. Read the full story...
Gopher tortoise. Photo by FWC.