This week my mentor, Keri, and I went out to Folsom to mark gopher tortoise holes. I also learned the importance of a good relationship with landowners and other organizations. It is difficult to get landowner and public interest, when trying to help a particular species. The way organizations like LDWF and NWTF overcome this problem is by working together to help two or more species. Turkeys and gopher tortoises like similar habitats, so the organizations collaborate, so that they can gain interest, since many people and landowners are more likely to be interested in helping multiple species.
So we met up with a biologist from the National Wild Turkey Federation, who was interested in the land we were going to visit. They had recently had a prescribed fire a month before our visit in a loblolly pine forest, and they both wanted to see how it was looking. The burn turned out really well and caused a lot of the problem plants, like yopon and Chinese tallow plants, to be burnt up for the most part. Other plans include restoring long leaf pines in clear cut areas where loblolly pines had been cleared. The land holds a lot of promise for the future for long leaf, turkey and gopher tortoises alike.
Shanna Lambert
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