Federal Judge Sides With Desert Tortoise
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
August 05, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - Environmental activists call it a major victory for the desert tortoise: A federal judge in San Francisco is refusing to allow cattle grazing and off-road vehicle use on 4-million acres of California desert, which is set aside as "critical habitat" for the desert tortoise .

Judge Susan Illston this week struck down opinions issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which would have allowed cattle and people to share land set aside for the tortoise in the massive California Desert Conservation Area.

The conservation area is about 25 million acres, of which 4.1 million acres -- an area larger than the state of Connecticut -- is designated as critical habitat for the tortoise.

It is not enough to consider the survival of the desert tortoise, the judge said in her ruling. She said the Fish and Wildlife Service must also consider "recovery" of the species -- boosting the population, in other words, to the point where it can be removed from the endangered species list.

'Desert abuses'

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the desert tortoise spends most of its time under ground. Even so, environmental activists say the burrowing tortoise is threatened by cattle and people.

According to its website, "The desert tortoise has been at the epicenter of the Center Biological Diversity's campaign to save the CDCA (California Desert Conservation Area) from livestock grazing, road proliferation, mining, inappropriate off-road vehicle use and other desert abuses."

The Center also says various lawsuits filed against federal agencies have "resulted in the closure of the largest mine within the National Park system, the banning and limitation of livestock on millions of acres of tortoise habitat, and the closure of 4,500 miles of roads."

A number of environmental activists praised Judge Illston's ruling in a press release issued Wednesday:

"The federal court's ruling restores Congress' intent that critical habitat, including the desert tortoise critical habitat located in the California Desert Conservation Area, be managed to restore tortoises, not to subsidize grazing cows in the desert or serve as off-road vehicle highways," said Earthjustice attorney Michael Lozeau.

He also blasted federal agencies that would have allowed cattle and people to mingle with tortoises: "Since the passage of the Endangered Species Act, FWS (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and other agencies like BLM (Bureau of Land Management) have been actively avoiding complying with Congress' command that they take all necessary actions to recover endangered and threatened species," Lozeau said.

Brendan Cummings, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, called Judge Illston's Tuesday ruling a "critical step in stopping habitat degradation and the killing and crushing of tortoises and their dens by cattle and off-road vehicles."

Cummings called it "unfortunate" that it took a federal lawsuit to force FWS and BLM to "read the statute and implement FWS' own recovery plan for the tortoise."

But critics say lawsuits are frequently used by environmental activists to advance their exclusionary agenda -- at a cost to taxpayers.

One environmental activist -- Karen Schambach, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility -- praised Judge Illston's decision as the "poster child for the value of an independent judiciary."

Elden Hughes of the Sierra Club commented that, "Recovering the desert tortoise will take a maximum effort" and he criticized the Bush administration for trying to do "something less than the minimum."

Ravens

Cattle and humans aren't the only threat to the desert tortoise. An August 1 article in the San Jose Mercury News said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering plans to kill ravens that prey on the desert tortoise.

Ravens are considered a major threat to restoring tortoise populations, but as the article notes, previous plans to shoot or poison ravens have drawn the wrath of some "animal rights" groups.

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.as...20040805b.html

 

Does anyone know where I can see the map of the affected area? From what I understand, this is literally right behind my house. BTW, I haven't seen a single desert tortoise while riding.

 

I am betting this will most severely effect the northern Mojave area, around Red Mountain, Ridgecrest, California City, etc. This is prime tortoise habitat, parts of which are closed already, even to on-trail riding! This is also the staging area for many DISTRICT 37 RACES, and probably why D37 was involved in the lawsuit. But, I can imagine them using this ruling to shut down almost any area where a tortoise might happen to wander! Thing is, habitat loss is not a major factor in tortoise biology! There are millions of acres of desert where NOBODY ever goes, and the tortoise population still can't hold its own. Off-roaders are just a convenient patsy, when disease and ravens are far more of a factor.