Cape Coral to consider preserving land for gopher tortoises

An environmentalist group is trying to save wildlife in Cape Coral.

Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife is working with the City of Cape Coral to designate land in a Northwest Cape Coral neighborhood for gopher tortoise habitat. These tortoises are threatened in Florida, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The city owns six acres zoned for parks and recreation.

“What we’re trying to do is get them not to develop it because it has so many gopher tortoises on there and across the street on the canal are also tons of gopher tortoise burrows,” said vice-president Pascha Donaldson of Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife.