John DeemSavannah Morning News
Construction of Hyundai Motor Company’s $7.6 million electric-vehicle manufacturing plant near Savannah has made national headlines and upended the lives of residents in northern Bryan County.
But one sentence buried deep in a 167-page environmental permit for the mega-project revealed some under-the-radar activity at the 2,450-acre site months before construction commenced in January 2023.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers document noted that gopher tortoises living on what was then still fields and forests had been removed from the site in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Georgia Wildlife Resources Division.
In all, 106 tortoises were collected and transported about 30 miles to the Fort Stewart Army base, said Rick Lavender, a spokesman for WRD, an agency within the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
“Conserving gopher tortoises – Georgia’s state reptile – and the native habitats they need has long been a DNR focus,” Lavender added in an email. “As is routine with such removals, most of the tortoises were excavated from burrows. They were then carried in containers for release in appropriate habitat at Fort Stewart.”
Gopher tortoises, which can reach 15 inches in length and typically live 40 to 60 years, are classified as threatened in portions of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi but not in the eastern section of their range, which includes Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and a portion of Alabama.
Their status here can be credited largely to the Gopher Tortoise Conservation Initiative.
“That public-private partnership is on the brink of its goal to permanently protect 65 viable tortoise populations in the state, an effort that contributed to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2022 decision not to federally list the species in the eastern part of its range (which includes Georgia),” Lavender explained.
Savannah-based Resource and Land Consultants relocated the tortoises with DNR’s approval and at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recommendation.
Carrying out such a project is no small task.
The burrows, which can go as deep as 12 feet and extend more than 60 feet, are designed to protect the tortoises from predators and severe weather.
They are the ideal location for hibernating during winter and escaping the summer heat. In fact, gopher tortoises spend as much as 80% of their time in burrows.
Hundreds of other species take up residence in the dugouts, and many of them wouldn’t survive without the protection. They include the threatened Eastern indigo snake, which was of particular concern in the environmental permitting process for the Hyundai site (none were spotted on the property).
Like the gopher tortoise, Eastern indigo inhabit areas dominated by longleaf pine trees that once covered 90 million acres from Texas to Virginia but now have been reduced to about 10% of their original coverage.
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Logging and a 20th-century move away from prescribed burns to manage the forest understory contributed to the loss. But development in the booming Southeast – with the Hyundai project as a prime example – continues to drive longleaf clear-cutting.
Conservation and restoration efforts have added about 2 million acres to the nation’s longleaf pine inventory, but experts say the species will never again approach its peak prevalence.
Fort Stewart was a practical choice for the tortoises displaced by the Hyundai project. Through a partnership between the Army and conservation groups, more than 400 acres of longleaf pines have been preserved or restored on the coastal Georgia base.
The effort has led to the resurgence of another species that thrives in longleaf forests. Populations of the endangered red-co*ckaded woodpecker have surged by nearly two-thirds at the installation, the Army reported.
Longleaf pines, which can live an average of 250 years if undisturbed, also act as long-term protectors of the planet by absorbing heat-trapping pollution that causes climate change.
The relocated tortoises, meanwhile, will be insulated from future disruptions on an undisturbed section of the 279,000-acre Fort Stewart, the largest Army installation east of the Mississippi River.
And as expected development overruns habitat near the Hyundai plant, the transplanted reptiles will have plenty of space for sprawl themselves.
The Army and Georgia Land Trust, through agreements with property owners, have partnered to preserve 3,000 acres of mixed pine and hardwood forestland around the base.
“This effort is a great example of modern conservation,” said Andrew Schock, Georgia state director for The Conservation Fund. “The easem*nt protects the forests while the property is sustainably managed for its timber resources and remains on the tax rolls. ... It’s a relationship where everyone wins — the military, the environment and the community.”
John Deem covers climate change in coastal Georgia. He can be reached at 912-652-0213.
