[CPEO-MEF] BIOTA: Desert tortoise relocation (Ft. Irwin, CA) comment period extended

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Public has more time to comment on proposed relocation of desert tortoises

By JANET ZIMMERMAN
Riverside Press-Enterprise (CA)
August 14, 2009

Federal officials extended public comment on a plan to relocate desert 
tortoises for an Army expansion after being inundated with 20,000 
protest e-mails, a spokesman said Friday.

The comment period on an environmental report supporting the move was 
set to expire Friday. But the Bureau of Land Management, which is 
overseeing the relocation, pushed the deadline to Aug. 31 after 
environmentalists objected, said David Briery, spokesman for the BLM's 
California Desert District.

"We had gotten a lot of concern that the public didn't have the proper 
opportunity and length to comment on the environmental assessment," he said.

The BLM opted for a 15-day comment period so the Army could begin 
relocating 89 tortoises next month. The plan is to move them from Ft. 
Irwin National Training Center, near Barstow, to public lands south and 
west of the military property so the Army can use 94,000 acres for 
training troops. Crews would move another 1,143 tortoises next spring.



...

For the entire article, see
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_comments15.2eeb9a2.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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