My iPhone’s GPS couldn’t find the Heritage Ranch Gopher Tortoise Preserve. It claimed I’d already arrived, although I clearly had not. Turns out, the preserve is located farther east than the digital map could register. Fortunately, Todd Ness knew that would happen. He was ready for my call and waiting for me in his UTV at the preserve’s actual entrance.
As equipment ranch manager for Schroeder-Manatee Ranch (SMR), Ness oversees all 2,100 acres of SMR’s conserved land, including the 640-acre Heritage Ranch Gopher Tortoise Preserve. Driving me through miles of rugged trails lined with scrub grasses, vegetation and mostly native trees, Ness, a Manatee County native and former construction worker turned conservationist, explains that gopher tortoises are all around us. As we walk, he points out sandy mounds — entrances to the burrows where these ancient creatures stay hidden until dusk.
This refuge for one of Florida’s most iconic and ecologically vital species was permitted in 2012 by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). It currently shelters 346 gopher tortoises, with enough room to house nearly 300 more. The preserve offers a long-term solution to a recurring challenge in Florida’s fast-developing regions: what to do with wildlife displaced by growth…