Important Laws and Regulations
Protecting Tortoises

The laws and regulations governing the desert tortoise differ by state, location within the state, and whether the desert tortoise is a captive or a wild animal. In most places, the shell-skeletal remains are also protected by law and can only be collected by permit. People can be fined for collecting, harassing, shooting, harming, killing, or purchasing a desert tortoise under existing state laws. The populations that are federally-listed as threatened are similarly protected by the Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973. Table 1 (below) provides a summary of the laws and regulations by government agency (Federal or State) and by the state where tortoises occur.

The sequence of events leading to Federal protection under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, is shown below:

	1980 - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the desert tortoise population on the Beaver Dam Slope in Utah as threatened and designated 35 square miles as Critical Habitat for this population.
	1980 - the Bureau of Land Management listed the desert tortoise as a "sensitive species."
	1989 - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed desert tortoise populations occurring north and west of the Colorado River as endangered on an emergency basis for 240 days.
	1990 - on April 2 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final decision or rule listing the desert tortoises north and west of the Colorado River as threatened. The threatened populations include tortoises living in California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, and in Arizona north of the Grand Canyon. For convenience, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service referred to these populations of the desert tortoise as the Mojave population. In fact, the Mojave population includes desert tortoises living in the Mojave and Colorado deserts.
	1991 - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a finding that the desert tortoise population living in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona did not warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. However, tortoises are protected under state law in Arizona.
	1994 - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated approximately 6.4 million acres as critical habitat for the Mojave population of the desert tortoise (Federal Register, Vol. 59, No. 26, Feb. 8, 1994: 5820-5866). Critical habitat is defined as those habitat areas that contain physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species, regardless of whether the species is present in those areas (Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, Section 3).
	1994 - the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published the Desert Tortoise (Mojave Population) Recovery Plan. The Plan was prepared by a national team of specialists called the Desert Tortoise Recovery Team. The Plan identifies threats to tortoises and their habitats and recommends actions to recover tortoise populations to the point where they can be delisted.