Tag: Gopher Tortoise
The content below has been tagged with the term “Gopher Tortoise.”
Articles
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An Eastern indigo snake on sandy soil associated with the longleaf pine ecosystem. Photo © Houston Chandler, the Orianne Society (Used with permission).
Snakes in a bag
May 25, 2018 | 8 minute read
Andalusia, Alabama — A gaggle of biologists, zookeepers, college students and government officials traipsed through the Deep South longleaf pine forest one recent, gorgeous spring morning carefully clutching white pillowcases. They were looking for holes. More specifically, gopher tortoise burrows into which they could deposit their precious cargo of Eastern indigo snakes, aka “Emperors of the Forest.” Southern Alabama including Conecuh National Forest. Map by Roy Hewitt, USFWS. Learn more...
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Coushatta Tribe members (from left) Bertney Langley, Ernest Sickey and Gardner Rose show a sign that honors the habitat restoration partnership between the tribe and the Service. Photo courtesy of the Coushatta Tribe.
Woven from the Landscape
January 23, 2018 | 4 minute read
Before the United States was settled by Europeans, longleaf pine forests covered about 90 million acres of the Southeast. Most of these forests were logged for turpentine and lumber, and by 1975 they had been reduced to about 5 million acres. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is working with countless private landowners, state and federal agencies and conservation groups, to restore the glory of the longleaf. The motivation for many of these conservationists is to help the many at-risk and endangered birds and wildlife that thrive in longleaf forests from the red-cockaded woodpecker to the gopher tortoise. Learn more...
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Col. Matthew Higer, 96th Test Wing vice commander, bends down to release a gopher tortoise into its new home deep within the Eglin Air Force Base. Photo by Samuel King Jr., U.S. Air Force.
Boosting the gopher tortoise
August 22, 2017 | 8 minute read
Atlanta, Georgia – Typically, animals like the Florida panther lose their Southern habitat, dwindle perilously close to extinction and end up on the endangered species list. Federal, state and non-profit groups hustle to raise money and conserve land to bolster the populations with the chance, one day, of delisting it. The gopher tortoise, though, just might buck the trend. An at-risk species in Georgia, Florida and parts of Alabama and South Carolina, the tank-like tortoise is the recipient of an unprecedented, high-dollar collaboration between government agencies, NGOs and the private sector to keep gopherus polyphemus from ever gracing the threatened or endangered species list. Learn more...
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Reese Thompson is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others to conserve a natural longleaf pine stand on his south Georgia land. Photo by Bill O’Brian, USFWS.
Longleaf pine for Georgians
August 22, 2017 | 9 minute read
Longleaf pine trees once blanketed the landscape from southern Virginia to east Texas. They were majestic hallmarks of the Southeast. Learn more...
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Longleaf pines, says Salem Saloom, are "part of our heritage." Photo by Mark Davis, USFWS.
Growing trees, saving species
August 9, 2017 | 8 minute read
If one of the Southeast’s signature species is the gopher tortoise, so, too, is the towering pine that shades its burrow. The longleaf pine is one of the Southeastern United States’ great trees. When European settlers came to North America, they discovered Pinus palustris. It stretched across 90 million acres, from east Texas to Virginia, and was just what a young nation needed to grow. The wood from the conifer built homes, sailing masts and even roads. Learn more...
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A gopher tortoise hiding in its shell. Photo by Ben Williams.
Florida couple dedicates property to conservation
July 20, 2017 | 2 minute read
Ben 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...
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Altama Plantation. Photo by Nicole Vidal, USFWS.
A gem for hunters and hikers alike
July 12, 2017 | 4 minute read
Brunswick, 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...
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Mr. Dink NeSmith has a special relationship with the Altamaha River. Photo by Nicole Vidal, USFWS.
Local landowner fights for the Altamaha
July 12, 2017 | 3 minute read
Jesup, 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...
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Salt marsh along 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 read
It 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...
News
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October 16 ribbon cutting ceremony to be held at Sansavilla Wildlife Management Area
October 16, 2017 | 2 minute read
Mt. Pleasant, Georgia – On Monday, October 16, the Department of Natural Resources will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony to announce the acquisition of the final phase of more than 19,000 acres purchased for the Sansavilla Wildlife Management Area. Featuring 12 miles of Altamaha River frontage and one of the largest gopher tortoise populations in Georgia, the area provides fishing opportunities, wildlife watching locations, canoeing, boating, and hunting for deer, turkey, and small game species. Read the full story...
