Tag: Gopher Tortoise
The content below has been tagged with the term “Gopher Tortoise.”
Articles
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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... -
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... -
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... -
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... -
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... -
A tank littered with bullet holes at Townsend bombing range. Photo by Nicolve Vidal, USFWS.
The military embraces conservation
July 12, 2017 | 4 minute read
Townsend, 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 field of young longleaf pine at the Coastal Headwaters Forest. Photo by Dan Chapman, USFWS.
A harmonious future for profits, pine and at-risk species along the Florida-Alabama line
May 9, 2017 | 7 minute read
Pace, 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... -
Two F-22 Raptors from Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., fly in formation. Photo by Senior Master Sgt. Thomas Meneguin, U.S. Air Force.
Biologists on bases: Fish and Wildlife joins the military
April 26, 2017 | 6 minute read
Melanie 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... -
Baby gopher tortoise. Photo by Randy Browning, USFWS.Protecting military readiness and the iconic gopher tortoise at the same time
March 24, 2017 | 6 minute read
Tifton, 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...
News
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Juvenile striped newt. Photo by FWC.
Fish and Wildlife, the military and state of Florida boost conservation at Camp Blanding
April 6, 2017 | 3 minute read
The 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...