$5.3 million conservation land deal to help save tortoises

Collier County leaders are preserving land with the help of Conservation Collier to help save tortoises.

The Collier County Commission approved the largest conservation land deal in Marco Island history. They approved the purchase of three land parcels via Conservation Collier for nature preserves. It’s a purchase of $5.3 million.

RELATED: Marco Island sees increase in gopher tortoise roadkill

On any given day, Marco Island resident Robyn Sandrick sees about 12 tortoises, not including the babies.

They’ve created a network of tunnels underneath her home and into her neighbor’s yard.

A highway leads to a parcel of land along South Barfield Drive on Marco Island, where there are about 90 gopher tortoises, as well as a pair of nesting burrowing owls and nesting bald eagles.

But this road is insanely busy.

“2022, we lost about 25 or six gopher tortoises along South Barfield alone,” said Brad Cornell from Audubon Everglades & Audubon Florida.

But, the $5.3 million purchase might help stop tortoise deaths.

This land along South Barfield, plus two more parcels on Inlet Drive and Caxambas Drive, will now be deemed as preserve land.

“The county can put in a permanent fence that actually they can sink into the ground by a foot or two, which is what you need to do to keep the tortoises from burrowing under the fence,” Cornell said.

It will also keep the land from turning into a parking lot or shopping center.

“And there’ll be signage to help people see and understand what they’re looking at,” Cornell said.

Neighbors WINK News spoke to are all for it. They hate seeing the little guys get hurt. Sandrick just hopes it doesn’t put an end to her highway.

“No fence on this side because they won’t be able to travel to the conservation area unless they make a little doorway. A turtle doorway would be outstanding,” Sandrick said.

Cornell said there are over 130 gopher tortoises that call those three land parcels home, and even though these parcels aren’t right next to one another, the tortoises have already connected them with burrows.

It’s just a matter of stopping them from getting run over, and the more conservation land there is, the better for them.