‘Sick to your stomach’: Neighbors worried about gopher tortoise habitat destruction during park maintenance

Tree clear out may harm gopher tortoises

A community is torn on how to address issues after the city manager at an Indian Harbour Beach park tore down trees that were a fire hazard. Neighbors said the land is pummeled and gopher tortoises are everywhere in the park.

INDIAN HARBOUR BEACH, Fla. - A community is torn on how to address maintenance issues at a beloved park on the Space Coast.

The city manager of Indian Harbour Beach said invasive pepper trees had to be removed at Gleason Park, but the city’s approach has people concerned about a threatened species that also lives in the park.

What used to be a canopy of trees is now a pile of wood chips in a back corner of Gleason Park.

"It makes you sick to your stomach when we see this devastation," said Tessa Tate who lives right next to the park.

She moved to Florida last year and says the park was a major selling point, but it isn’t the same anymore.

"They came in with these horrible devices that pummeled the land without any regard for what might be in here," said Tate.

She’s worried about gopher tortoises which are a threatened species in Florida. The beloved animals are everywhere in the park, burrowing in the brush.

Deputies: Man kicks kid, flashes gun after 'ding-dong ditch' turns dangerous

"They’re all over this area, this end of the park especially. They like to hang out," said Lisa McKinnon who often visits Gleason Park with her grandkids. She said she was caught off guard and taken back by the demolition.

Parkgoers are concerned the project harmed the tortoise’s habitat. The city manager said they needed to clear out the area to get rid of pepper trees which are an invasive species and a fire hazard.

"That whole area will torch off in a wildfire season," said John Coffey who says the city used a more cost-effective measure to remove the invasive trees.

He said his team "walked the area extensively and did not see any mounds", but now they’re pausing any more work at the park and bringing in a certified tortoise expert to survey the park.

"I don’t think it’s helping very much at all, certainly not more beautiful," McKinnon concluded.

What happened in the one area in the park can’t be undone, but these neighbors are asking for a different approach in the next phases.

They said the city should get rid of the pepper trees without destroying animals' habitats and the shaded canopies people love.