Now Things Get Complicated or Gopher Tortoises Part 2

So its now October of 2017. I have contacted Keith and asked him for a bid on building the house. His response was totally different than builder number three. I emailed the bid set of plans to builder number three and never received an answer. Keith on the other hand apologized when it was taking him longer than expected to get numbers from his subs. He was in nearly daily contact with me. I was getting a good vibe from him. Now remember I'm in NOLA and he's in Florida. I've never seen him. But we're working well together long distance. I was really pleased. He would tell me what information was needed in order to move forward. We needed a site plan so that we could deal with the tortoises and so he could submit for the building permit. So now was the time to get moving on this part of the project. I had been in contact with Drew Gatewood since August of 2017 concerning the tortoise issue. We stayed in contact but he couldn't do anything until I had a builder in place ready to go. Once he did the survey and we decided how many tortoises needed to be removed and he removed them, the builder would have to come in and secure the building site with the black silt screen preventing any tortoise from entering the building area. But before he could apply for the permit from the state I had to have a site plan drawn up by the surveyor and the final set of plans. Drew needed these to show that there was a need to remove the tortoises and thus to justify the permit. You can't just remove them for no reason. That's against the law. Also remember that if the temperature drops below 50 degrees, you can't remove the tortoises until the temp is above that for three days. And you can't get any closer than 25 feet to a burrow and you can't just circle their burrow with the silt screen with a radius of 25 feet. They have to be able to move about. OK so this was the initial cost by Drew.

1) Survey of property to locate all burrows $300.00
2) Applications and rental of backhoe $700.00
3) Excavation of each burrow $300.00
4) Cost of placing tortoise in the approved tortoise relocation site $800.00 per tortoise
5) Deliver the tortoises to the relocation site and after action report $500.00

Did you notice number four. Yes that's correct. Each tortoise that is removed from my property and goes to the relocation site costs $800.00 The state does not set the price. Its the land owners. They get together and decide on the price. I do know that if it's 10 or fewer tortoises then they should be able to be relocated on my property. So I'm not too concerned at this point.

So its now November and Drew has walked the property but not officially surveyed it. He says we have in total at least 15 to 20 burrows. Now depending on where the house will be placed, not all of them will need to be removed but still. The cost assuming 20 burrows with 15 occupied,

Survey $300

Permit Fee $3,270.00 to FWC

Compile permit and backhoe rental $700.00

Excavation of all burrows $6,000.00

Tortoise Hotel $12,000.00

Tortoise Hotel Transport $500

Total: $22,770.00

And you have to have this done before you are issued a building permit. So on the 9th of December Drew surveys the property. I receive the following news from Drew. He called me and asked if I was sitting down. I'm thinking oh man now what. Drew says, "You have 35 burrows on your property!"

My gopher tortoise plantation!

I am no longer sitting down. I now have this sense that the project is done before it really got started. If all the tortoises had to be relocated, the cost of digging them up and relocation alone is $38,500.00. The cost of the permit is based on the number of tortoises so that would increase too. So the total would be well over 40k. I can't do it. What are my options. I could sell the land and take a loss cause anyone who lives in Florida knows about gopher tortoises. My hope was since there are two groups maybe I could take a few out of the larger group in the eastern section, and still put in a driveway and build the house. So I start calling the state wildlife commission. And specifically the person in charge of gopher tortoises for the southern counties. In addition, Drew says that he's heard that the owners of the relocation land will soon up the cost for each tortoise from $800.00 to possibly $1000.00 or more! Sigh. OK first things first I need to talk to the State rep. I call and leave her a message. She's out in the field but calls me the following week after getting back. I tell her my story and the issues. She says she needs to make a site survey. She will contact Drew and set a date. This is now the end of December. We arrange to meet the last Friday before the Spring Semester starts, January the 12th. 

So Drew, Rachel (the state rep), Keith, Tim and I meet at the property on Friday the 12th. This is also the first time I've met Keith the builder and Tim who will be the site foreman for the house construction. Even Rachel is surprised by how many I have. But she says we need to get ten or less out so you can snake in a drive and place your house. We spend about 1 1/2 hours walking the property and making notes and in the end we identify 10 that if removed we can go forward. And we can place them on the western part of the property! Good news. I spend the rest of the day with Keith and Tim going over flooring, cabinets, T&G wood for the ceiling etc. Keith, Tim and I hit it off very well. We are all on the same page and I have a sense that they are looking out for me during this process. No one likes surprises especially if they are going to cost more money. OK I think we are on track. I fly back to NOLA on Sunday a happy man. 

So now the issue is Drew can't get his permit until he has a site plan. So I contact the surveyor and ask him for a site plan. He delivers one but it has to be modified because he's not aware of the tortoise situation. So I work up three different site plans and finally settle on one. I send him my drawing based on his previous work. I had to place all the tortoises that needed to be removed on a separate drawing so I could have a good idea of how to snake in the driveway so the surveyor could put it on the official plan. The issue. He absorbed another company and thus has absorbed the other jobs which puts him on the road five days a week. It took until the 10th of February nearly a month later until we got the site plan.

 

 It took until the 28th of February to get the actual gopher tortoise permit issued and signed. Drew is set to dig up the ten tortoises on the 4th of March as long as the temperature doesn't drop below 50 degrees. He has to print out the official temperature based on either NOAA or NWS hourly temperatures leading up to the actual digging time to show that he dug when the temperature was above 50 degrees. How close was it? The hours leading up to the dig the temperature was 52 degrees. 

The dig happens. So Drew was successful in digging up the marked tortoises and cleared the way for the driveway and the house.

How deep do they burrow? This one is eighteen feet! Drew thinks that the depth of the tortoise burrows of the western group could be as deep at twenty five to thirty feet deep. He would need an extension on the backhoe arm to reach them.

This is the picture of the property after the ten were removed. The western group was untouched. I just plotted the extreme location of that group. There are twelve tortoises there.

The house will be placed between the left most house and the little shed to the right, near the clearing. Tim and his crew installed the black screen. Major progress has been made.