26th Annual Meeting and Symposium of the
Desert Tortoise Council, March 16-18, 2001
Abstracts

2001 Status Report for the West Mojave Plan: An Uphill Battle with Another Two Years to Go

Edward L. LaRue, Jr.
Bureau of Land Management, 2601 Barstow, California 92311

During 2000, the West Mojave Plan was in a consensus building mode. The planning team met numerous times with representatives of the 28 participating jurisdictions to discuss the 1999 Biological Evaluation for the conservation of the desert tortoise in the West Mojave (Bureau of Land Management 1999). Planning groups included the Steering Committee (+/- 15 participants), Super Group (+/- 150 participants), and Task Groups or Subcommittees (from as few as 2 to as many as 45 participants). The discussions have focused on desert tortoise conservation, with general consensus attained for about half of the management prescriptions proposed in 1999.

General consensus items included (1) establish four Desert Wildlife Management Areas (Tortoise DWMAs); (2) on lands administered by the BLM, designate Tortoise DWMAs as Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) and as Multiple Use Class Limited; (3) designate Biological Transition Areas adjacent to DWMAs to minimize indirect impacts to the DWMAs; (4) designate two Special Review Areas (Brisbane Valley and Copper Mountain Mesa) for special take avoidance measures; (5) designate Exclusion Zones where there would be no tortoise survey requirement; (6) maintain designated critical habitat on Edwards Air Force Base and China Lake Naval Weapons Station; (7) travel in only those washes designated as "open" and signed as appropriate; (8) restrict all vehicular travel to existing, "open" routes, thereby prohibiting cross-country travel; (9) restrict camping on BLM lands to previously existing, disturbed camping areas adjacent to vehicle routes designated as "open;" (10) allow no vehicle speed events in DWMAs; (11) allow dual sports as currently regulated by a federal biological opinion; (12) prohibit general shooting other then hunting in DWMAs; hunting is allowed in all areas as currently regulated; (13) allow dogs off leash that are accompanied by and under control of their owners in all areas; (14) prohibit plant harvesting in DWMAs; (15) allow minimum impact recreation (e.g., hiking, birdwatching, horseback riding, photography); and (16) install tortoise-proof fencing along pertinent portions of Interstate 40 and State Routes 395 and 58.

The planning team is currently seeking consensus on unresolved issues, which include (1) compensation for new agriculture; (2) overall compensation strategy; (3) education; (4) fencing; (5) fire management; (6) grazing; (7) land acquisition; (8) new landfills; (9) law enforcement issues; (10) mining; (11) recreation; (12) headstarting; (13) construction and maintenance of new roads; and (14) future development of utility corridors. In 2001, we will be discussing these unresolved issues, the proposed conservation strategy for the State-listed threatened Mohave ground squirrel (Bureau of Land Management 2000), and conservation strategies for a total of 104 additional plant and animal species.

Two parallel actions that may significantly affect tortoise conservation in the West Mojave are the Fort Irwin expansion and Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit against the BLM for not consulting under Section 7 of the Federal Endangered Species Act on protection of threatened and endangered species occurring within the California Desert Conservation Area. These actions are briefly compared to the conservation strategy of the West Mojave Plan, with more details being presented at this Symposium by Mickey Quillman (Fort Irwin expansion) and Daniel Patterson (Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit).

References

Bureau of Land Management. 1999. West Mojave Plan, Draft Evaluation Report, Suggested Conservation Strategies, Chapter 2: Desert Tortoise. Edward L. LaRue, Jr., editor. Riverside, CA.

Bureau of Land Management. 2000. West Mojave Plan, Draft Evaluation Report, Suggested Conservation Strategies, Chapter 3: Mohave Ground Squirrel. Edward L. LaRue, Jr., editor.