U.S. BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages several million acres of public lands with desert tortoise habitat in the deserts of Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah.
Between 1974 and the mid 1990s BLM experts on the desert tortoise held leadership roles in designing and carrying out studies, research and monitoring of the species. Personnel with tortoise expertise moved from BLM into the U.S. Geological Survey as the Biological Resources Division in 1997.
In 1973 the BLM initiated a long-term process to establish and protect tortoise populations in the western Mojave Desert at the Desert Tortoise Research Natural Area. The 38-square mile preserve was formally designated in 1980. In 1980 the BLM also designated the Chuckwalla Bench Area of Critical Environmental Concern in the southeastern Colorado Desert, another area with a nationally significant tortoise population. In cooperation with the Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee, The Nature Conservancy, and other groups, the BLM established a very successful land acquisition program for both areas. Law enforcement officers-called Rangers-contribute to protection of the tortoises and their habitats at the two protected areas, as well as throughout the deserts,
in critical habitat and other habitats.
The BLM in Utah manages the Woodbury Desert Study Area on the Beaver Dam Slope, where the first ecological study of desert tortoises was conducted in the 1930s and 1940s by researchers from the University of Utah. In 1980, this area was part of a 35 square mile area designated as critical habitat when the Utah Beaver Dam Slope population was listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The BLM in Utah is also a participant in the Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan, a key provision of which is that tortoise habitat essential to the Upper Virgin River Recovery Unit will be acquired by BLM for management of tortoise recovery.
In Arizona, BLM is a member of the Arizona Interagency Desert Tortoise Team, which is a collection of biologists from agencies with management responsibility for tortoises or their habitats. BLM manages the majority of the desert tortoise habitat in the Sonoran Desert in the United States, as well as the habitat upon which the Mojave Desert tortoises are dependent on the Arizona Strip.
In Nevada, BLM is a participant in the Clark County Habitat Conservation Plan and has an active role in the research being conducted at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center in Las Vegas.
The BLM manages public lands for many different resources and uses other than wildlife, such as mineral exploration and development, production of energy, recreation, and livestock grazing. To reduce impacts to the tortoises and their habitats, BLM closely reviews proposed activities for the public lands. In some cases, special actions to protect the species and its habitat are required. The BLM is in the process of developing and implementing management plans for the major tortoise habitats within the four state region. Individuals and companies wishing additional information on activities on
BLM-administered lands should contact BLM at one of the numbers listed in Table 3.
