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

The Desert Tortoise Council (DTC) is an organization dedicated to assure the perpetual survival of viable populations of the desert tortoise within suitable areas of its historic range. Over the past two years, the DTC has worked to meet this goal through the objectives outlined in its charter. We have commented on Management Plans and Environmental Assessments. We have formed a coalition of organizations interested in protecting and managing tortoise habitat in the West Mojave to better represent tortoise interests in the development of the West Mojave Plan. The DTC has written letters supporting actions that benefit tortoises, such as for improved management of cattle grazing in critical habitat. We held a 1998 annual symposium, highlighting studies and management of tortoises and desert ecosystems. We are planning a Desert Tortoise Handling Workshop in October of 1999. We set up an internet web site that currently serves as a source of information about the DTC, and will soon have more symposium abstracts, more information about desert tortoises, and links to other similar organizations. We also publish and distribute proceedings of our annual Symposia, and will soon publish, Answering Questions About Desert Tortoises: A Guide For People Who Work With The Public, a questions and answers pamphlet about desert tortoises.

Most accomplishments have been possible through the efforts of the Board of Directors and many other volunteers. The DTC can improve its productivity and effectiveness if more members volunteer to help meet our objectives. We could provide information and formal comments on more environment assessments, analyses, and impact statements/reports if more members assisted with the review process. The 1999-2000 period promises to be more productive than 1998, because of web site development, the growing alliance with other environmental organizations, a Desert Tortoise Handling Workshop in October, our silver anniversary Symposium in 2000, and hopefully more involvement from our membership.