25th Annual Meeting and Symposium of the
Desert Tortoise Council, April 21-24, 2000
Abstracts

The Clark County Desert Conservation Program: A Review of Conservation Accomplishments

Cynthia Truelove
Desert Conservation Plan Administrator, Clark County, 500 S. Grand Central Pky., Suite 3012, Las Vegas, Nevada 89155

With the emergency listing of the desert tortoise under Endangered Species Act provisions in 1989, Clark County became the potential battleground for conflicts between the goals of economic prosperity and environmental integrity. Within a year of the formal listing of the desert tortoise as threatened, a vast array of stakeholders joined together to hammer out what has become one of the nation's most significant public habitat conservation plans which is soon to become the nation's third largest Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. As part of the Desert Tortoise Council's panel on habitat conservation plans, this talk will address the short and long-term accomplishments of the Clark County Desert Conservation Plan including attention to issues of public consensus-building, conservation infrastructure development, an overview of significant research findings, as well as a discussion of an array of mitigation efforts currently underway.