[CPEO-MEF] BIOTA: Ft. Irwin (CA) seeks to move desert tortoises

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Army seeks to move more than 1,100 desert tortoises

Julie Cart
Los Angeles Times Greenspace
August 5, 2009

As it prepares to expand training operations at Ft. Irwin in the Mojave 
Desert, the U.S. Army is again proposing to move more than 1,100 
threatened California desert tortoises -- an unprecedented number of an 
endangered species that has not fared well during previous relocations.

The Army is seeking the approval of the federal Bureau of Land 
Management to move the tortoises from nearly 100,000 acres in portions 
of the National Training Center to lands managed by the BLM. The 
environmental assessment is under BLM review and the proposed action is 
open for a 15-day public comment period.

Moving desert tortoises is not always successful. The Army relocated 
more than 600 of the animals last year but suspended the $8.7-million 
program after the first phase when officials noted high mortality rates 
among the tortoises, chiefly because of coyotes.

....

For the entire article, see
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/08/desert-tortoise-endangered-species-army-training-.html


For the Bureau of Land Management news release,see also 
http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/info/newsroom/2009/july/CDD0960_tortoise_translocation_EA.html

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org




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