Matt Elliott, GTC Junior Co-Chair
Dear Members,
I am very excited to join y’all as the incoming co-chair with Becca Cozad. I have worked with gopher tortoises for many years with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Wildlife Resources Division. Currently I am Assistant Chief of Wildlife Conservation, which means I mostly scurry about with other folks’ grant paperwork in hand, but my heart is still in the field. I love doing gopher tortoise surveys and still think I am pretty agile with a burrow cam. The most rewarding part of my work with DNR has been participating in land acquisition and conservation easement projects as part of Georgia’s Gopher Tortoise Conservation Initiative. I feel really fortunate to have been a part of this, and love to show folks around some of the places we have protected.
I am really looking forward to speaking with all of you in our upcoming spring business meeting, and even more to meeting y’all in person at our annual meeting this year, November 10th-13th, 2022 at the E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center in Freeport, FL!