WAlTON COUNTY — A 55-year-old man was charged with three misdemeanors last month after he was found setting traps on a piece of land near U.S. Highway 90 to catch gopher tortoises, a threatened species.

The Santa Rosa Beach man told the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers that he was buying the property where the turtles were located, and before the construction could begin he must remove the tortoises.

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The defendant said he did not know it was illegal to…