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

One of three large plans in progress that address the recovery of the desert tortoise in the California, Desert, the Northern & Eastern Colorado Desert Coordinated Management Plan (Plan) focuses on the Northern and Eastern Colorado Desert Recovery Units and a small portion of the Joshua Tree Recovery Unit. The planning area, 5.5 million acres in size, lies mostly in the Sonoran Desert Ecoregion. It is bounded by I-40 (North), the Colorado River (east), the Imperial Sand Dunes and Coachella Canal (south), and the West Mojave Plan (west). The planning area does not contain urbanizing areas which characterize the West Mojave Plan. The major cooperating agencies are the Bureau of Land Management (lead), Joshua Tree National Park, U. S. Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma for the Chocolate Mountains Aerial Gunnery Range, U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and California Department of Fish & Game (provides the lead wildlife biologist). Additional cooperators to the Plan include other federal, state, and local agencies as well as many interest groups. The Plan is ecosystem management in scope. Plan decisions will amend or augment existing land use plans of the cooperating federal agencies for the tortoise and other species and habitats and may be of use by other agencies and companies with interests in the planning area.

Work and accomplishments during the last year:

Plan Concept. Issued in June, this was essentially a single alternative proposal that amounted to a "trial balloon" for cooperators consideration. Comments were generally negatively critical, running the gamut from “not restrictive enough” for tortoise recovery to “too restrictive.” Comments focused on labeling and size of proposed DWMAs (ACECs of roughly 1,000,000 acres each) and on proposed restrictions on non-permitted driving in washes in recovery areas. From comments received we developed additional data and analyses to help better relate sensitivities and use levels.

Science Panel Review. On November 12 we held a science panel review for the cooperators of work in progress, including data and methods. It was led by Dr. Mike Allen, Director of the new Center for Conservation Biology at the University of California at Riverside. The event increased the level of confidence among cooperators in science basis and improved plan direction . The Panel provided findings and recommendations on four topics: data quality and analysis, ecosystem approach, conservation principles, and monitoring/research strategy (given probable future funding limitations). At the conclusion of the panel the cooperators voiced the feeling that we were essentially ready to begin developing the plan. (A copy of the panel report is available at this symposium).

Building the Plan. We are developing plan alternatives at this time. Each alternative will:

Resolve six scoping issues
Provide a spectrum of possibilities
Be practical and implementable
Show clear management direction
Be an interdisciplinary approach

We anticipate having at least three alternatives, although there may be as many as four or five. No action alternative consists of “Current Management” which is current policy and regulation. Each alternative will depart from Current Management with increasing focus on desert tortoise recovery and species and habitats.

Schedule. Major scheduled milestones for remaining work on the Plan are:

August, 1999 - Develop and review administrative draft plan/EIS
September 1999-Issue draft plan/EIS for 90 day public review; public meetings
May 2000-Issue proposed plan/FEIS
July 2000-Sign Record of Decision