Survey of Silviculture that Benefits the Gopher Tortoise

The Gopher Tortoise is currently a candidate species for listing under the Endangered Species Act in the eastern portion of its range, and already is listed as threatened west of the Tombigbee River in Alabama.

This survey requested information that would be used by the National Council for Air & Stream Improvement, Inc. (NCASI) to help the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service better understand the extent of forest management activities that benefit the Gopher Tortoise. Please report information only for pine forests.

Forest managers were encouraged to report management activities by state and year annually, beginning with 2012. The year should have coincided with federal fiscal years (Oct. 1 – Sept. 30) to allow this survey to match other information the Service was gathering. A separate survey should have been completed for each year and state.

Participants completed a separate survey for each state and provide information only from counties within the range of the gopher tortoise. (They submitted separate surveys if reporting for counties where the gopher tortoise was currently listed federally and for counties where it was a candidate for listing. These options were included in the drop-down menu for State.) A list of counties within the gopher tortoise range, which identified Alabama counties in the listed and candidate portions of the range, is available here.

Information should have been reported as totals by state (combined for all counties within the state). Consultants who worked with more than one landowner should have combined information for all private landowners by state. To avoid duplication, consultants and landowners should not have reported activities that received cost-share funding, as these would be tracked and reported by the agency. Likewise, consultants should have reported work completed for corporate owners only if the owner would not be reporting here.

NOTE: Information submitted by individual respondents was treated as confidential. NCASI only provided the Service survey results summarized by state and year and removed any information that would identify individual respondents and / or landowners.

The survey is now closed. 

Questions should be directed to Angie Larsen-Gray, PhD at gro.isacn@yarg-nesralA.