Desert Tortoises: In the Field

Inter-institutional Collaboration:

Defenders of Wildlife has joined public land managers in the desert including the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the Department of Defense, and the California Department of Fish and Game in order to work together to educate the residents and visitors to the California Desert about the unique biology and recovery needs on the desert tortoise.
Desert Managers Group (DMG)

Implementing the Recovery Plan

Recovery efforts include Defenders advocating for a strong, scientifically sound outcome from the process of the Recovery Plan. Defenders is also participating in the Desert Managers Group– a group that will take the recovery plan recommendations and implement them on the ground.

Fencing

In the fall of 2005, Defenders granted matching funds to the Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee to fence a key 30 acre parcel of desert lands. These lands formerly on Off Highway Vehicle (OHV) staging area will be protected against trespass and grazing sheep.

Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee

Education

Defenders is engaged in a broad public education campaign for the desert tortoise. In addition to publishing a desert tortoise brochure, this includes a raven outreach brochure, highlighting the raven population’s increase and its negative effect on tortoise populations.

Defenders continues to work to identify and fund critical projects necessary to reduce the impacts of roads on wildlife. Current plans include innovative road signs along major highways through the West Mojave to raise awareness of the area amongst motorists. We will also begin Spanish outreach in select schools and public service announcements on Spanish-speaking radio stations broadcast in the Mojave to reach a new segment of society not previously targeted.

Grants

In the spring of 2005, Defenders supported research by Smithsonian nutritional ecologist Dr. Olaf Oftendal looking into the availability of desert tortoise food throughout the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.

Guzzlers

Defenders brought attention to the impact of guzzlers (artificial water sources in the desert) on tortoises through direct drowning. This included work with other conservation agencies and letters to Senators in California.

Planning

Defenders submitted comments on the West Mojave HCP as to potential adverse affects on tortoises and their critical habitat needs.

Military Collaboration

The Army is a potential partner in desert conservation in 2007. Defenders is working with the military to acquire additional habitat for the desert tortoise in part through the Army Compatible Use Buffer Zone (ACUB) program at Ft. Irwin. Current plans call for acquiring a 2,600 acre parcel of land in the Ord Mountain DWMA (Desert Wildlife Management Area) known as the Fisher Ranch. Fort Irwin would like to hand this land over to an interested conservation group(s) to be managed in accordance with desert tortoise conservation.
Army Sustainability

Partnership

Defenders is participating in the Collaborative Desert Tortoise Recovery Planning Process to identify actions to improve the status of the desert tortoise and work collaboratively with all pertinent stakeholders in a manner which minimizes conflicts.

Defenders is monitoring a proposed landscape composting project which may have a negative impact on tortoise populations. Advocacy will be tailored towards a goal of modifying the plan or stopping it all together.