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Within 100 years, about 75% of the current gopher tortoise population could disappear. Despite these calculations, the federal agency denied Endangered Species Act protection to the Eastern population of gopher tortoises in the U.S.
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The lawsuit comes a dozen years after federal environmental regulators said the tortoises needed added protection to survive.
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Environmental groups say he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has previously agreed to added protections for the species, but has since backtracked.
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"There's an implication that the Fish Wildlife Service removed protections for gopher tortoises. They did not. If we wanted to think of the immediate protection level changes for the species, this finding document found no change," said Jeffrey Goessling of Eckerd College.
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Gopher tortoises are generally doing well and need federal protection only in the small area where they were declared threatened 35 years ago, the government said.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed a bill that could lead to increasing the sites where gopher tortoises can be moved out of the path of development.
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While every dog has it's day, so it seems, does the slow-moving, Florida-native tortoise.
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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is extending most of the provisions of an executive order that conservationists say favors development over gopher tortoises.