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

Implementation of Line Distance Sampling throughout the Mojave Desert

Philip A. Medica¹ and Michael L. Burroughs²
Desert Tortoise Recovery Coordinator¹ and Wildlife Biologist², U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1510 N. Decatur Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada 89108

A series of implementation meetings were held during the fall of 2000 within each Recovery Unit. At the Management Oversight Group Technical Advisory Committee (MOG/TAC) meeting in January 2001 the plans for this next field season were discussed. Line Distance Sampling shall be initiated rangewide throughout the Mojave Desert (listed population) of the desert tortoise. A workshops was held for managers and staff personnel in January 2001, and a second workshop shall be held in mid-March of this year for field crews to be trained in the Line Distance sampling. All field personnel should attend this 4-day workshop which will cover an introductory presentation by Paul Lukacs of Colorado State University, and 3 days of field trials practicing Line Distance Sampling and subsequent evaluations.

Line Distance Sampling will be conducted within each Mojave Desert Tortoise Recovery Unit, and most of the Desert Wildlife Management Areas (DWMAs) within Critical Habitat. It is estimated that approximately 2400 kilometers will be sampled in California, at least 700-750 km in Nevada, 300 km in Utah, and 240 km in Arizona. Sampling will be initiated approximately April 1, 2001 and continue until about June 15, 2001, depending upon how environmental factors. In the light of limited funding in 2001, we anticipate being able to determine more accurately the encounter rate and, subsequently, more accurately determine the number of transects needed to obtain the necessary numbers of tortoises (80-100) per designated area, i.e. Recovery Unit, DWMA, or stratum