Does anyone know how to check this if a parcel is on scrub jay territory in LEE COUNTY, Florida? I’ve worked in a few counties in Fl that provided this info on their GIS maps but Lee Country doesn’t. I called Fish & Wildlife and they told me that I need to show proof of intent to build on the property and they would tell me if it is on scrub jay territory. I want a way to determine before I buy if a property is in scrub jay territory in Lee county. Does anyone have experience in dealing with this?
@Djoos, that is interesting. I've also experienced other FL counties providing, if not a GIS map, a list of parcel IDs of properties which they've deemed to be scrub jay habitat, and after searching a few minutes, I can't find that for Lee County, either. I'll let you know if I find something. In the meantime, just to confirm, when you say that you called Fish & Wildlife, was this a county-level agency that you called, or State of Florida? If it was possibly the latter (state agency), then I would call people at the county level to see what they say. You might try calling the department that issues building permits, for instance, as I imagine they'd need to have a way of ensuring a property is clear before they could issue a permit, assuming that they have similar scrub jay requirements as other counties.
Originally I contacted Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission located in Fort Myers and asked them if they can provide a county map of scrub jay territories . They informed me that scrub jays are federally protected and I would need to contact U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for that information. So I called them and they told me that I would need to fill out a form to request if the parcel is in scrub jay territory. They told me that the information can only be given if I'm building construction on the parcel. On the form, it even requests for a permit application number under a section of the form entitled "Proof of Intent to Build".
@Djoos, yeah you might just want to ask the department that issues building permits in Lee County whether any specific wildlife clearances are required before they'll issue a permit. From what I'm seeing (or not seeing) online, I'm wondering if this just isn't as much of an issue in Lee County as it is for some of their neighbors. And while I don't mean to disparage their role, at all, I just wonder if the Wildlife Conservation people at a state and federal level might never tell you, "Oh, yeah, you can build in that county with no issues."