NewsLocal News

Actions

Help tortoises? "Gopher" it!

FGCU students create gopher tortoise habitat
Posted at 4:02 PM, Oct 04, 2021
and last updated 2021-10-11 16:07:38-04

NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. — FGCU students are among those pitching in to create gopher tortoise habitat in North Fort Myers.

The students and members of the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) teamed up with Lee County Department of Natural Resources to help the species.

The students and FNPS have been saving native scrub plants from areas that are being cleared.

They were looking for places to transplant them when they found out Lee County was looking for native scrub plants.

The plants are going in an area along the Caloosahatchee where fill was dumped decades ago as the Edison Bridge was built.

The county says the plants will create more natural habitat for gopher tortoises which are a threatened species.