Residential infill, Gateway growth, and commercial pads along the corridors — FWC-authorized tortoise compliance for greater Fort Myers.
Fort Myers tortoise work is corridor work. The pine flatwoods that once ran unbroken from the Caloosahatchee to Estero are now threaded with development — and every remaining upland pocket along Daniels, Colonial, Treeline, and Alico is potential habitat. Commercial pads, multifamily sites, and the last big residential parcels all hit the same checklist item.
North of the river, North Fort Myers stays semi-rural with strong tortoise populations in its transitional land. South, San Carlos Park's older platted lots produce steady infill surveys, and Gateway keeps expanding into flatwoods east of the airport.
For commercial and multifamily work we deliver survey exhibits your civil engineer can lift straight into the site plan — GPS burrow coordinates, aerial overlay, photo log — and we run the FWC permit in parallel with your development approvals.
Residential, commercial, and everything along the corridors.
Outparcels and development sites along Daniels, Colonial, US-41, and Alico. Site-plan-ready survey exhibits, permit handled in parallel.
Older platted neighborhoods with vacant sandy lots — steady burrow hit rate, quick single-lot turnarounds.
Semi-rural parcels north of the Caloosahatchee with established populations; larger lots often allow on-site relocation.
Communities and flex/industrial expanding east into flatwoods — habitat by definition.
Depending on your address, permits run through the City of Fort Myers, Lee County, or a neighboring jurisdiction — but tortoise compliance is state law everywhere (Rule 68A-27, F.A.C.): 25-foot no-disturbance buffer around every burrow, FWC permit required to resolve conflicts, surveys valid 90 days. Lee County development review will flag suspected habitat on site plans, and our report answers it.
Commercial timelines are the ones tortoises hurt most — a burrow found after mobilization idles heavy equipment by the day. Order the survey during due diligence or site-plan prep and the FWC review disappears into your entitlement timeline.
The same four steps everywhere we work — most clients only ever make one phone call.
Give us the property address and your timeline. We confirm whether a survey is needed and schedule within 48 hours.
We walk 100% of the parcel, GPS-map every burrow, and deliver an FWC-format written report the next business day.
If tortoises are present, we prepare and submit the FWC relocation permit application for you. Typical review: 2–6 weeks.
Once permitted, we capture and relocate the tortoises to an approved recipient area. You're legal to clear and build.
Same transparent pricing across our whole service area — no location markups.
| Gopher tortoise survey | $350 / quarter acre |
| Relocation (up to 2 tortoises, permit included) | $1,400 |
| Each additional tortoise | +$400 |
| Off-site recipient site fee (waterfront/canal lots — paid to the conservation site) | $5,000 / tortoise |
Full details, examples by lot size, and what's never included: see the pricing page.
Residential lot or commercial pad — we're on-site within 48 hours and the report lands the next business day.