Twenty-Third Annual Meeting and Symposium of the
Desert Tortoise Council, April 3-5, 1998
Abstracts

The West Mojave Plan is a multi-species regional habitat conservation plan. It is being prepared by a consortium of 28 cities, counties, federal and state agencies and special districts. The plan will present a consistent program for compliance with the California and federal endangered species acts while contributing to the recovery of desert tortoise populations within the rapidly urbanizing Western Mojave Recovery Unit. The Plan is being drafted by an interagency planning team with the assistance of a “Supergroup” composed representatives of agencies and organizations with a stake in the future management of the recovery unit. The plan will enable the agencies and local jurisdictions to obtain programmatic incidental take permits and assurances, and programmatic biological opinions, from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG).

During the past year, a team of twenty biologists was organized by the United States Geological Survey’s Biological Resources Division and tasked to prepare a species account, an analysis of threats and habitat needs, management recommendations, a bibliography, and hard-copy maps of species range and occurrence for each of the 98 special status plants and animals being studied by the plan. A geographical information system (GIS) computer map data base was prepared which includes nearly a gigabyte of biological, resource and jurisdictional information. In addition, a document titled Current Management Situation was completed which catalogued the plans, policies and programs currently being applied by each of the 28 participating agencies to the desert tortoise and other special status plants and animals.

The CMS, together with the biological data base and GIS maps, are presently being evaluated by a team of FWS and CDFG biologists and botanists. That team will determine whether existing programs could support the issuance of incidental take permits, assurances, and biological opinions. Where program modifications are necessary before permits could be issued, the FWS and CDFG team will recommend appropriate measures for adoption by the agencies. These findings and recommendations will be set forth in an evaluation report.

Desert tortoise management treatments, and prescriptions affecting other species, will be developed by the Supergroup using the GIS and textual data base, the CMS, and the evaluation report. The Supergroup will accomplish this through “task groups,” scheduled to meet during the early summer of 1998. Thereafter, the planning team will prepare a Draft Plan and Draft Environmental Impact Report and Statement (EIR/S) for release late in 1998. Following a 90-day public review, a Final Plan and Final EIR/S will be prepared. It is anticipated that the West Mojave Plan could be ready for agency adoption in May 1999.

Project Manager William Haigh may be contacted for further information at (760) 252-6080. Mr. Haigh may also be reached at his E Mail address, “whaigh@ca.blm.gov”.