Act Now to Save Desert Tortoises

Last year, more than 250 desert tortoises died after a disastrous attempt by the Army to relocate 600 of the imperiled tortoises to make way for a tank-warfare training area in the California desert. Now, the Army and the Bureau of Land Management are rushing forward with a plan to move over 1,200 more tortoises. Originally the public was  given only a tiny, 15-day window of opportunity to express itself on this lethal proposal, but you stepped up and inundated the Bureau of Land Management with more than 24,000 letters. The deadline has now been extended until August 31, 2009.  And we still need your help.. The translocation effort and other threats are pushing the tortoise closer to extinction. Desert tortoise translocation has never been attempted on such a large scale. Even so-called "successful" small-scale translocation projects have had a more than 20-percent mortality rate. Having survived tens of thousands of years in California's deserts, desert tortoise numbers have declined precipitously in recent years in the face of disease, crushing by vehicles, military base expansion, suburban sprawl, habitat degradation, and predation by feral dogs and ravens. Speak up for the tortoises today by sending a letter to the Bureau of Land Management. It’s still essential that we get a strong public response questioning the need for the translocation, demanding a full environmental review and assurances that more tortoises will not die as a result of this controversial project.

November 22, 2009 Subject: No More Deadly Desert Tortoise Translocations The draft Environmental Assessment for the translocation of more than 1,000 desert tortoises provides an inadequate analysis of impacts to the declining desert tortoise. A full environmental impact statement is required to analyze this controversial project, which has a dismal track record of desert tortoise survival. Because of the unacceptably high mortality of desert tortoises during the 2008 translocation, I am particularly concerned that the environmental review and new translocation plan thoroughly discloses impacts and crafts solutions to the complex issues to assure a much higher level of survival for this declining species. The desert tortoise is a bellwether for the health of the western deserts, where it has lived for tens of thousands of years. To date, more than 250 desert tortoise deaths were documented during the previous translocation effort, and the new translocation plan falls far short of identifying and implementing strategies to minimize future desert tortoise deaths and ensure the survival of the species in the western Mojave Desert. Given the precedent set by the disastrous translocation in 2008, the Army and Bureau of Land Management need continue work on the translocation plan, improving it to minimize desert tortoise deaths. The current Environmental Assessment fails to make a full accounting and analysis of the 2008 translocation effort including the number of tortoises moved, the number that died or were harmed, the cause of death or harm, and measures implemented to minimize deaths and harm. It fails to justify the need to move all of the desert tortoises from their home ranges. It fails to minimize future deaths, completely forsaking analysis of the primary cause of tortoise mortality: predation by canids. It fails to address preventing tortoises from trying to return to their home territories, which puts them at greater risk for predation and disease. The alternative analysis in the Environmental Assessment is not comprehensive. It also fails to address the actual carrying capacity of the proposed translocation areas, especially in light of global climate change. If tortoises must be moved, please make sure that translocated and resident tortoises are not harmed. We will add your signature from the information you provide.		First Name* Last Name* Email* Street* Street 2 City* State/Province* Select a state Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware D.C. Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Mariana Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Armed Forces (the) Americas Armed Forces Europe Armed Forces Pacific Alberta British Columbia Manitoba Newfoundland New Brunswick Nova Scotia Northwest Territories Nunavut Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan Yukon Territory Other Zip/Postal Code*
Desert tortoise photo by Beth Jackson, USFWS. In 2001, federal law expanded the Fort Irwin military base, located north and west of Barstow California, by 133,000 acres. Most of the expansion land is inside critical habitat for the federally threatened desert tortoise, and contains some of the last high-density tortoise populations in the western Mojave Desert Recovery Unit for the species, established under the Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan. To mitigate the severe impacts to desert tortoise from the base expansion, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is responsible for implementing the Endangered Species Act, required the Army to move desert tortoises out of harm’s way. Approximately 600 tortoises were moved in the spring of 2008. 252 tortoise deaths (both resident and translocated tortoises) have been documented as a result. Against the recommendations of leading epidemiologists, healthy animals were moved into existing diseased populations of resident tortoises infected with an often-deadly upper respiratory tract disease. Because tortoises have superlative “home-range fidelity” -- meaning they tend to cling to their home territory no matter what -- many of the tortoises, once moved, desperately tried to make the long journey home to their habitat on the military base. In October 2008, due to mounting death tolls and legal actions initiated by the Center for Biological Diversity, the relocation campaign was suspended. Now the Army wants to initiate a second phase by moving the remainder of the southern expansion translocation (89 tortoises that have not previously been moved) as well as the much larger western expansion translocation, which is estimated to be home to an additional 1,100-plus tortoises.