Cape Coral’s citizen sanctuary

These guys have waterfront lots in Cape Coral given to them, but they could care less about the view – they’re in too much of a hurry to dig a basement.

Burrowing owls and gopher tortoises have been either discovered on, or been brought to, one of 48 residential lots where nothing will ever be built. These plots of land were purchased by members of a wildlife group establishing a patchwork sanctuary for the animals throughout the northwestern part of town.

Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife has spent about $450,000 purchasing four dozen plots and are negotiating to buy five more. The 300-member group has been amassing the citizen sanctuary since 2002. The group focuses on burrowing owls and gopher tortoises because they both dig into the ground for protection and because most of the lots are easy-to-dig-in sandy spoil dredged up from the bay bottom when the city was created in the 1950s.

“Many of the developers don’t care about the burrowing owls,” said Carl Veaux, a jovial, 83-year-old past president of the group. “That’s what burrowing owls are facing. The rapid development of the city.”