OUR 22nd YEAR
Our Goal: To assure the continued survival of viable populations of the desert tortoise
throughout its range.
22nd SYMPOSIUM RECAP
The 22nd Annual Desert Tortoise Council Symposium was held for the third year in a row at Sam’s Town from Friday,
April 4 through Sunday, April 6, 1997. The Monday field trip was to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and the
Grapevine Springs Desert Tortoise Permanent Study Plot where approximately 50 tortoises have been equipped with
radio transmitters during a research project on demography and survivorship.
Dr. Richard Knight, editor of the Island Press book entitled Wildlife and Recreationists: Coexistence Through
Management and Research, coordinated and chaired an excellent special session on the many aspects of impacts by
recreationists on wildlife. Some quotes from Dr. Knight after the symposium: “We were overwhelmed by the
dedication and friendliness of your organization. I suspect you are protecting more desert in your work than any
other single conservation initiative, I wish you continued success.”
Dr. Anne Ehrlich gave the keynote address on “The Betrayal of Science and Reason: How Anti Environmental rhetoric
Threatens our Future.” Both Drs. Knight and Ehrlich kindly signed their books at the Special Reception Saturday
evening in honor of the host of special speakers.
1998 SYMPOSIUM NEWS: TUCSON!
We heard you. One of the most popular proposed symposium cities registered in our 1996 questionnaire was Tucson,
in the land of the Sonoran desert tortoise. Our arrangements and host committee is forming and planning the 23rd
Annual Desert Tortoise Council Symposium in 1998. We are seeking proposals from hotels in Tucson, Arizona. For you
long-range planners, we are focusing on the first weekend in April, but intend to be flexible with March or other
April dates, excluding religious holidays. With any luck, we will have an outstanding wildflower season, so bring
your camera. We will keep you informed as soon as a site has been chosen.
1996 PROCEEDINGS
The 1996 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium Proceedings are completed! They were edited by Breck Bartholomew and
are in a handsome new format. Due to circumstances beyond our control, they were not available at the 1997
symposium. Those who placed orders will receive them as soon as we relocate our storage facility. We appreciate
your patience. The charge for members is $10.00, $15.00 for nonmembers.
ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING
The 22nd annual Desert Tortoise Council business meeting was held on Friday, April 4, 1997, prior to the opening
session of the Desert Tortoise Council Symposium. Elections of officers included outgoing Senior Co-chair Ed LaRue
as Recording Secretary and Corresponding Secretary; Marc Sazaki, treasurer; Dan Patterson , Junior Co-Chair; and
Tim Duck, Junior Co-chair-elect. Katherine Zander was installed as the new Senior Co-chairperson. Good luck
Katherine, and our thanks to Ed LaRue.
PHOTO CONTEST
This marked the second year that prints were submitted and Symposium attendees voted on the photographs. All first
place winners received $25 and the best of show an additional $25. First place winners are listed below.
1. WILD DESERT TORTOISES
Carolyn Lackey.
2. CAPTIVE (PET) DESERT TORTOISES
Karen Kampfer.
3. OTHER DESERT REPTILES
Jeanie Evenden and Michael Walker.
4. DESERT MAMMALS
Susan Williams.
5. OTHER DESERT WILDLIFE
NO ENTRY.
6. WILD DESERT PLANTS
Jeanie Evenden and Michael Walker.
7. DESERT SCENICS
Jeanie Evenden and Michael Walker.
8. TORTOISE CONSERVATION
Jeanie Evenden and Michael Walker.
BEST OF SHOW: Susan Williams
BLM PROPOSES MINING REGS
The following report comes from the Wildlife Management Institute. With little apparent change of legislation
being enacted to reform the outdated 1872 Mining Law, the Bureau of Land Management, which administers the law,
has proposed to change mining abuses on public land through regulations by 1999. It is an ambitious effort and
observers report that lawsuits surely will follow. BLM will try to develop a programmatic, national environmental
impact statement and regulations that can weather the almost certain lawsuits. The agency already has asked, via
the Federal register, for public input on developing the EIS.
According to Jim Coffin writing in Public Land News, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt ordered BLM to use the
regulatory process and create tougher environmental standards for hard rock mining on public land. Babbitt
reportedly requested that “state-of-the-art technology” be required as the standard for mine operations, rather
than the current “normal operator’s practice.”
BLM reports that it will comply with the Secretary’s orders by revising the regulations to seek better
coordination with states, improving the performance standards that operators must follow, and require those
standards be extended to operations of 5 acres or less, which is not now the case.
SUIT TO LIST FLAT-TAILED HORNED LIZARD
The Tucson Herpetological Society, Defenders of Wildlife, the Horned Lizard Conservation Society, and others have
sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to list the flat tailed horned lizard as a threatened species. The flat tailed
horned lizard lives in extreme southeastern California, southwestern Arizona, and northwestern Sonora. FWS
proposed the species as threatened in 1993, but has failed to act since. FWS and several agencies including BLM
are preparing a conservation agreement that would remove many of the threats to the lizard, but the plan is not
yet completed and FWS has yet to determine if enough threats would be removed to warrant dropping their proposed
rule. FWS is supposed to make final decisions 1 year after a proposed rule. Nearly 4 years have passed.
COUNCIL PROJECTS
The Council is tracking, participating in, or commenting on several projects including those listed below:
Molycorp Mine hazardous materials spill and expansion
Chemgold Mine
West Mojave Coordinated Management Plan
Fort Irwin expansion
Ward Valley low-level nuclear waste dump
Desert Tortoise Council World Wide Web page
Desert Tortoise Council Brochure
Arizona Interagency Desert Tortoise Plan for Sonoran Desert Tortoise
BLM land exchanges in Arizona and Nevada
BLM burro removals in Nevada
Wildlife guzzlers in Mojave Desert
Information requests
HIGH COURT RULING ON ESA LAWSUITS
On March 19, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that private property owners and other interested people could
sue the federal government for actions taken under the Endangered Species Act, according to the Wildlife
Management Institute. The decision cuts two ways, in that the court said that suits could be brought by
conservationists who have no legal “interest” when the government action resulted in less protection for
endangered species. Thus, all sides of the issue are claiming victory. Previously, only citizens with an interest
in preserving species were thought to have standing under the ESA..
FAIR MARKET VALUE BILL INTRODUCED
This spring, congressman George Miller (CA) introduced a bill to require commodity users of public lands to pay
fair market value for the resources they extract. Reportedly, the bill has little chance of passage, but Miller
was expected to use it as a negotiating tool during House discussions on “corporate welfare,” according to the
Wildlife Management Institute. The bill, H.R. 919, would make mining companies pay royalties, public land
livestock operators pay higher grazing fees, and timber companies to quit below-cost timber sales. We have not
heard anything lately on this bill. See the mining REGS article on page 2 for the administration’s attempt at
public lands mining reform.
SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY NEWSLETTER ONLINE
If you have Internet capability, check out the Society For Conservation Biology web site at www.conbio.org.
The newsletter will usually be posted within a week of its mailing date. |
