Twenty-Fourth Annual Meeting and Symposium of the Desert Tortoise Council, March 5-8, 1999
Abstracts

The Endangered Species Act allows private property owners the opportunity to develop their land and incidentally take endangered or threatened species provided they participate in the development and implementation of a Habitat Conservation Plan and obtain an incidental take permit in accordance with Section 10(a)(1)(B) of the Act. The Washington County HCP has been in place since March 1996. Seven-hundred eighty acres of tortoise habitat have been cleared for development and 112 wild tortoises have been moved out of harm’s way and subsequently placed in holding or translocated. To offset losses, a 61,000-acre Reserve has been established, land purchased and grazing rights obtained. At present, recovery gains have exceeded anticipated losses, however, there are still a number of on-going issues which need to be addressed.