| Report blasts tortoise
protection efforts
(Note: Imagine that! The GAO 'blasts' tortoise 'protection' efforts! Could it be that it is not about 'protecting' tortoises, which only happen to be the 'poster species' used to lock up vast acreages from regular people?) December 20, 2003 By Samantha Young Las Vegas Review-Journal Stephens Washington Bureau To submit a Letter to the Editor: letters@lvrj.com Washington, D.C. - Despite spending $92 million over the past 10 years and enforcing land controls over swaths of the Mojave Desert, the government cannot determine whether its efforts are helping to protect the endangered desert tortoise, federal investigators said Thursday. Federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, need to improve research and tracking of the desert species that was put under federal protection in 1990, the General Accounting Office said in a report. Investigators also pointed a finger at military installations and four states with desert tortoise habitat -- Nevada, California, Utah and Arizona -- saying their science efforts have been inefficient. "Among the concerns we have had is we aren't even able to count these species," said Dennis Murphy, a University of Nevada, Reno, biology professor who contributed to the report. "There has been very little contact between what we know about the species and what we are gleaning from the information and the public actions we've taken," Murphy said. If the tortoise is ever to be removed from the endangered species list, the government must show it has increased in population over 25 years. Investigators criticized government agencies for failing to assess their own tortoise protections, which include restricting off-road vehicles, livestock grazing, highway fencing and public educational programs. "Given the controversy surrounding some of the recommended restrictions, and the large number of acres and land users affected, we believe that it is important to ensure that management decisions are supported by research," investigators said in the report. Counties in the region have enforced land controls to protect desert tortoise habitat. For example, Clark County has restricted livestock grazing on at least 1 million acres. Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., called the 58-page study "a pathetic commentary" on the handling of endangered species. "We've been working on this for a generation, 20 years, and have yet to show any difference in protecting the desert tortoise -- other than spending a bucketload of money on it," Gibbons said. Murphy said scientists have concluded the desert tortoise is hard to count because of its solitary nature and long life span. The reptiles often bury themselves underground and can live up to 70 years. "I think the report shows the limits of trying to assess a program for the desert tortoise," said Jim Moore, field representative for the Nature Conservancy in Las Vegas. To better gauge the tortoise population, the GAO recommended agencies link land management decisions with tortoise research, periodically reassessing their plans to reflect the latest scientific information. Clark County already is working in that direction, said Lew Wallenmeyer, the county's desert conservation program administrator. Clark County is operating under a 30-year permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service that allows development of up to 145,000 acres of desert tortoise habitat -- in exchange for a $550 per acre mitigation fee -- paid by developers for conservation projects elsewhere. The GAO called for the Interior Department to seek tortoise protection money from the Defense Department's operations in the desert. Jane Feldman, conservation committee leader of the Sierra Club of Southern Nevada, praised the GAO for highlighting the uncertain funding of the endangered species program. "The way these federal land managers are going to be able to make a difference is if they get federal funding for those lands," Feldman said. But Gibbons, a critic of the Endangered Species Act, said Congress should instead rewrite the laws dictating how animals and plants are placed under federal protection. |