Vandals drive through critical wildlife area
Six days have passed into the investigation involving an unidentified motorist damaging an environmentally protected area.
Sometime between midnight and sunrise during the morning of May 14, Little Estero Critical Wildlife Area at the south end of Fort Myers Beach was vandalized when a truck plowed through the shorebird nesting area, killed a ‘threatened’ least tern and crushed several eggs.
“There was a vehicle encroachment on the beach,” said Gary Morris of Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. “(The vandals) drove through our posted signs, knocked them down and drove into the middle of the critical wildlife area. The result was it killed a least tern and destroyed some nests and eggs.”
Morris, who received the information from a Turtle Time watch observer, stated that it is not only illegal to drive on to the beach but illegal to drive into a well-posted critical wildlife area during nesting season.
“Killing a state threatened species is punishable as a third degree state felony which is up to 5 years and/or $5,000,” said Morris. “We have an investigator assigned to the case, and we are looking for information leading to the connection of the individual or individuals responsible.”
Anyone who has information to the crime can call the Florida FWC wildlife alert hotline at 888-404-3922 and may be eligible for an award.
“We’re been working really hard with the Fish and Wildlife Commission to protect that area of the island,” said FMB Environmental Sciences Coordinator Keith Laakkonen. “Something like this is very, very serious. Hopefully whoever did it will never do it again. If they did it with forethought, that’s far more serious than someone out there for a joy ride. Everyone around here knows that you don’t drive a vehicle on the beach and, certainly, not through a posted bird-nesting area.”