Rockledge
Community Park Facts
Goals, policies and objectives/Rockledge Comprehensive Plan.
A viable gopher tortoise population has been preserved. Thirty acres has been set aside for a preserve. The Community Park is under construction and is planned to open this fall.
1.
Approximately 140 gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrows are located on
the 81 acre Community Park property.
2.. Ecologists consider the gopher tortoise a keystone species because their large burrows provide shelter for over 350 different species. Gopher tortoises can live 40 to 60 years.
3. Nine tortoises were relocated to another location on the property, due to construction in the area. The Wildlife Commission typically discourages relocation of wildlife. Relocation normally has negative impacts on both relocated and resident populations of wildlife in the form of stress, disease and parasite transmission, over population leading to increased competition for food, cover and other resources.
4. The Wildlife Commission recommends that a valuable gopher tortoise population should be preserved on site.
5. The park property is in a natural state of mostly pine, Mesic flatwoods, isolated wetlands, and a sandy herbaceous habitat where most of the burrows are concentrated. This currently intact native vegetation includes: ancient ten foot saw palmettos, towering Slash pines, Palatka holly, wax myrtle, scrub oak, sabal palmetto, sweet bay, lyonia, shiny blueberry, Saint John’s wort, goldenrod, pennyroyal, native grasses, etc., and 80 acres of dense bird and wildlife habitat.
6. In Florida, the gopher tortoise is listed as a “species of special concern.” Their population has been reduced 80% by rampant urbanization in the last 100 years.
The citizens of Rockledge were surveyed
When the citizens of Rockledge were surveyed about what facilities they wanted for their Community Park, the top five amenities desired were nature areas, picnic areas, hiking and biking trails, a canoe lake and a pavilion. However the planned community park concentrates on "stick and ball" facilities, the City citing current and future needs.