We're based right here in Port Charlotte — the fastest gopher tortoise scheduling in Charlotte County, often same-week.
Port Charlotte was platted in the 1950s and 60s into tens of thousands of quarter-acre lots — and the ones still vacant have had half a century to become gopher tortoise habitat. The sandy pine flatwoods soil under most of the community is exactly what tortoises dig in, which is why burrows turn up constantly on infill lots from Section 15 to Gulf Cove.
If you're building on a vacant Port Charlotte lot — or adding a pool, lanai, or shed on an occupied one — Florida law requires that no clearing or ground disturbance happen within 25 feet of a burrow until it's resolved under an FWC permit. A survey is the first step, and on a standard 80×125 lot it costs $350 with the written report in your hands the next business day.
This is our home base. We live and work in Port Charlotte, we survey these streets weekly, and we can often walk your lot within a day or two of your call.
The four jobs that generate most of our Port Charlotte calls.
The classic Port Charlotte project: an infill build on a long-vacant 80×125 lot. Survey before your clearing crew mobilizes — a burrow found mid-clear stops the job.
Burrows on or near occupied lots are common. If the dig zone, equipment path, or spoil pile comes within 25 feet of a burrow, it needs to be resolved first.
Canal-front lots are booming — but FWC does not allow on-site relocation on parcels bordering a canal, so tortoises here go off-site to a recipient conservation site.
Buying a lot at auction or from an out-of-state seller? A $350 survey before closing tells you whether you're also buying a relocation project.
Charlotte County doesn't run its own separate tortoise program — the statewide FWC rules apply, and the county building department expects wildlife compliance to be handled before land clearing. Our FWC-format survey report slots straight into your permit package, and if a relocation permit is needed, we file it and manage the 2–6 week FWC review for you.
Practical tip for Port Charlotte builds: survey before you order site work. The survey is valid 90 days for the FWC application, so the ideal sequence is survey → building permit prep → relocation (if needed) → clearing. We coordinate timing so the tortoise step never becomes the critical path.
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.
We're local — often on-site within a day or two. Tell us the lot and we'll take the tortoise question off your plate.