About Cape Coral Wildlife Trust

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Cape Coral Wildlife Trust is a nonprofit land trust dedicated to one mission: acquire land for education, research, and the preservation of Cape Coral’s indigenous wildlife.

Founded in 2017, we began with two city-sized conservation lots in central Cape Coral. These small patches of sandy, undeveloped land were home to over 40 active gopher tortoise burrows. Today, those same lots host more than 94 burrows, a clear signal that threatened species are desperately seeking safe ground—and finding it on the land we protect.

As Cape Coral rapidly develops, it is losing the very habitats that make it special. With more than 3,500 burrowing owls—Florida’s largest population—scattered across its remaining open lots, and thousands of gopher tortoises living beneath the soil, this city has become a frontline in Florida’s wildlife crisis.

At Cape Coral Wildlife Trust (CCWT), we act before it’s too late. We use monetary donations, land gifts, and estate contributions to acquire and permanently preserve buildable lots across the city. Each lot becomes a “forever home” for owls, tortoises, and hundreds of other species that rely on tortoise burrows for shelter from predators, fire, and Florida’s intense heat.

Our work is backed by science. Research by Dr. John Herman and his team at Florida Gulf Coast University confirms that urban gopher tortoise populations in Cape Coral form a viable, self-sustaining conservation unit. He—and other conservation biologists—encourage the use of local land trusts like CCWT as an effective tool for saving threatened species in fast-growing urban areas.

We’re not just preserving land—we’re creating a future where wildlife and city life can coexist. With help from generous donors, volunteers, and partners like Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife, we’ve already preserved over 60 lots. But with thousands more at risk, our work has just begun.

If you want to make a lasting difference in Cape Coral—

Give land. Fund land. Save wildlife.