Fort Irwin Displaces Desert Tortoises (VIDEO)
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/media?id=6063083

10:00 PM PDT on Wednesday, April 16, 2008

By JENNIFER BOWLES
The Press-Enterprise

Coyotes have killed at least 11 desert tortoises recently moved to make way for Army tank training exercises north of Barstow.

The problem coyotes, thought to be attacking tortoises because the drought has left fewer rabbits in its wake, will be tracked and possibly killed by a federal agency to help protect the tortoises -- a species threatened with extinction

All together, 23 tortoises have been killed since the large-scale relocation of more than 700 reptiles began in March south of the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, said John Wagstaffe, an Army spokesman.
 
Of 700 desert tortoises included in an Army relocation project north of Barstow, at least 23 have been killed by what authorities believe were coyotes desperate for food. The coyotes will be tracked and possibly killed to protect the tortoises, authorities say.
Some of the tortoises were already living in the relocation area.

Roy Averill-Murray, who is the desert tortoises recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said three tortoises survived attacks. Two tortoises had one of their legs chewed off, and one of the reptiles required treatment after being found flipped over on its shell for three days in a row, Averill-Murray said.

Dr. Leonard Sigdestad at Loma Linda Animal Hospital in San Bernardino operated on two of the tortoises last week and amputated one maggot-infested leg from each of them. He released them back to the federal biologists who are monitoring the tortoises in the wild.

Kristin Berry, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S Geological Survey, took one of the tortoises to her Riverside home to care for it. She said it can barely walk but she hopes it can one day be returned to the wild.

Out by Fort Irwin, biologists have been tracking the relocated tortoises with transmitters glued to their shells on a daily basis and found the ones that died, Wagstaffe said.

The Army started moving the tortoises in late March from the southern boundary of the National Training Center at Fort Irwin as part of an $8.5 million effort to deal with the threatened species while expanding its training grounds into the land considered critical for the tortoises.

The move capped a 20-year battle between the military and environmentalists.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management oversees much of the land selected for relocating the displaces tortoises. BLM officials a few days ago discussed strategies with other federal and state agencies on how to solve the coyote problem, said Doran Sanchez, acting associate manager of the agency's California desert district.

Attacks by coyotes on tortoises are rare, said Averill-Murray. He said that with the drought in the Mojave Desert over the past few years, coyotes outnumber rabbits, their typical food source,

"The coyotes are just desperate and the tortoises are a tough food item to eat with that big shell," he said. "Rabbits would be easier, but when there aren't many rabbits, then tortoises seem to be their next choice."

Berry, with the USGS, said short-lived animals like rabbits don't bounce back quickly from drought.

She said coyotes recently have killed tortoises in other study plots in California and Nevada but it is infrequent. This spring, she said, presented a good time to relocate the reptiles from Fort Irwin because of the abundance of wildflowers, their main food source.

"We hoped with the flush of wildflowers we might be seeing some ground squirrels and other rodents the coyotes could eat," she said. "You can take it into account but we can't control every aspect of nature, if any."

The wildlife service division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the same agency that plans to shoot ravens found preying on young tortoises in other parts of the Mojave Desert, will help the Army remove the coyotes in three, one-square-mile plots where many of the dead reptiles were found. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concurred with the Army's plans to shoot or use traps and decoy dogs to capture the coyotes.

The job of decoy dogs "is to respond to coyotes calls and lure the coyote within shooting range," according to an April 15 letter to the Army by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Averill-Murray said it will be up to the crews in the field to determine whether to shoot the coyotes. He said he was unsure if they could be relocated.

"The plan is just to keep this as targeted and as limited as possible to alleviate the pressure. It's not widespread," he said. He added that there's no evidence of major preying throughout the habitat where the tortoises were moved.

Two environmental groups have threatened to sue the Army over the large-scale relocation of the tortoises, and they plan to go ahead with the lawsuit to ensure the new habitat is managed actively, said Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Anderson agreed with Averill-Murray that the drought has caused an imbalance in the ecosystem. But she said that's no excuse for putting the tortoises in harm's way.

"While we're devastated, we're not shocked this is happening," she said. "You're putting these animals out there and if they're the only thing moving, they're going to be a target for predators."

Wagstaffe said the move was done to the best of the Army's ability with the help of federal and state biologists, and the tortoises will continue to be closely monitored.

"Part of the beauty of doing a detailed study is we're going to learn a lot of stuff," he said. "And we'll find some things that we did very well and some that didn't go well."

Reach Jennifer Bowles at 951-368-9548 or jbowles@PE.com. Or check out her blog at www.pe.com/blogs/environment

Marines looking to expand base by 100,000 acres

TWENTYNINE PALMS - Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Marine Corps officials confirmed that permits have been issued to look into expanding the facility at Twentynine Palms - possibly by as much as 100,000 acres into Johnson Valley.

The land acquisition is part of an effort to become the nation's premiere
combat training facility, said Gunnery Sgt. Chris W. Cox, the public affairs chief at the Marine Corps Air/Ground Combat Center.

"The Marine Corps is looking at areas contiguous to the base, including the
Johnson Valley, but no final decisions have been made regarding what
alternatives will be pursued and analyzed," Cox said in a prepared
statement. "When the alternatives are finalized, we will inform the public."

Permits were issued to conduct surveys of cultural and environmental impact, said BLM Chief of Resources Mickey Quillman, who is based out of the Barstow office.

While both Quillman and Cox warned that the proposed project would be still
be many years off, Quillman conceded there could be an impact on Lucerne
Valley, in at least as much as noise levels are concerned.

"It would be used for military training - a combination of live-fire and
force-on-force training," Quillman said.

Cox said that there is currently no training facility in the nation that can support the training requirements proposed by the Marine Corps, and that Twentynine Palms has been tasked with rectifying that.

"It is imperative that Marines receive the most realistic training before
deploying into a combat environment that demands split-second life or death
decisions. The potential land parcel additions would allow Marines to 'train as they fight' as a large-scale Marine Air Ground Task Force, in particular
a Marine Expeditionary Brigade," Cox said.

Quillman said that while the surveys are taking place, the process will
require Notice of Intent - which will open the discussion to the public,
through scoping meetings - and the proposal of alternative locations.
"This process of simply figuring out what land the base might actually need
to meet the Marine Corps training requirements and how it affects other
interests could take anywhere from three to five years" said Jim Ricker,
assistant chief of staff for the G-5 training center.

That process, Cox said, "will involve a great deal of input from the local
community and the wide range of stakeholders."

Quillman added that of particular concern are the off-road vehicle community and proposed solar projects.

Slow, steady -- and under siege

Endangered tortoises airlifted from an Army base face other threats.
By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

May 11, 2008

BARSTOW -- As the sun rose over the Mojave Desert, researcher Kristina Drake approached with caution as a creature with weary eyes, a scuffed carapace and skin as rough as rhino hide peered at her from the edge of a dirt road just east of here.

Wearing rubber gloves, Drake picked up the old female California desert tortoise and, in one fluid motion, moved her to safer ground beneath a nearby creosote bush. "It's one of ours," she said. "No. 4118."

The tortoise, nicknamed "Road Warrior," was among the 760 captured and airlifted by helicopter a month ago out of the southern portion of the Army's nearby National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, which is slated for expanded combat exercises. Her well-being in new terrain is essential to the $8.7-million relocation effort, which has been hit hard by a problem unforeseen by federal biologists: rampant coyote attacks.

"Coyotes didn't seem to be a problem when we started," said U.S. Geological Survey biologist Kristin Berry, a lead scientist in the project. "The question in the back of all of our minds now is this: How could we have determined that this was going to happen?"

The California tortoise, whose population has fallen to an estimated 45,000 on the public lands in the western Mojave, is protected under state and federal endangered species acts.

In 2001, Congress authorized Ft. Irwin to expand into prime tortoise habitat. As mitigation, the Army agreed to move the tortoises from the expansion area onto unoccupied public lands, an effort that began in late March.

So far, at least 14 translocated adult tortoises and 14 resident tortoises in the area have been killed and eaten by coyotes, according to biologists monitoring survival rates of the reptiles, most of which were fitted with radio transmitters. In a related problem, 15 of 70 baby tortoises collected at the training center as part of the relocation have died of various causes, Army officials said.

The problem, they say, may be linked to severe drought, which killed off plants and triggered a crash in rodent populations. As a result, coyotes, which normally thrive on kangaroo rats and rabbits, are turning to the lumbering Gopherus agassizii for sustenance.

In an effort to prevent further losses, the Army has requested that the predators, described by one military spokesman as a "rogue clan of coyotes," be eradicated by animal control sharpshooters. The gunners, however, have been delayed for weeks by bureaucratic red tape, military officials said.

In the meantime, many translocated tortoises have shown a tendency to wander, sometimes for miles, often in a northward direction back toward the Army base. Gashes and tooth marks on the shell of a translocated tortoise found April 15 indicated that it had been ripped out of the front of its carapace.

The Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based environmental group, said it plans to file suit later this month against the Army, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management for allegedly violating the federal Endangered Species Act in their management of desert tortoises.

Desert tortoises spend most of their lives underground. Recent studies indicate that the creatures, which can live for a century, are extremely sensitive and have complex social lives.

Of particular concern, lawyers for the center say, was the Army's decision a month ago to move tortoises to areas where they would be vulnerable to potentially lethal threats. The Army had been warned that numerous environmental studies expressed concern about vehicle traffic, drought-stricken foraging grounds, and resident tortoises suffering from infectious respiratory disease and predation by ravens, dogs and coyotes.

"The deed is done, and now we are watching the aftermath," said Ilene Anderson, a biologist and spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's a disaster. We've lost so many tortoises -- the California state reptile and a species that has taken a nose dive over the past 20 years -- so early on in the project."

Michael Connor, a longtime advocate of the tortoise and California science director of the Western Watersheds Project, a nonprofit conservation group, was critical of the Army's plan to wipe out suspect coyotes.

"These aren't rogue coyotes. They're just coyotes trying to make a living in the desert," Connor said. "Now they want to shoot them. Fine. But what happens if there are unforeseen implications from wiping out the region's top predator, like an explosion of rabbits and rats?"

Beyond that, he added, "the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had identified canine attacks as possible threats even before the project got underway. So I'm surprised the scientists are surprised that tortoises are becoming targets."

In any case, William Boarman, an adjunct professor of biology at San Diego State who's helping direct the translocation project, said that after the Army decided to expand operations at Ft. Irwin, "we were stuck with bad options: move the tortoises or leave them in place, which would have been much worse."

"Translocation was always risky," he added. "We're trying to make it work the best we can, and conduct research that can help us make future translocations more effective."

In years to come, the Army plans to relocate an additional 1,200 tortoises from the western edge of the base to prevent them from being squashed by military equipment.

Field researchers said most of the predation has occurred in areas between the rugged Calico Mountains and desolate Coyote Dry Lake.

On a recent weekday morning, USGS field researcher Kevin Lucas strode across loose rock and cholla cactus in a sandy wash just north of the lake near where a hefty radio-collared male tortoise, variously known as "No. 4164" and "Thor," relaxed in a patch of shade.

That tortoise was among the lucky ones.

"There was another translocated tortoise I'd really gotten to like, even admire," Lucas said. "He was a tremendous mountain climber with a can-do personality.

"The last time I saw him, he was on a steep slope in howling winds and something didn't look right," he recalled. "Through binoculars, I saw that his head and legs were missing. A deep sadness came over me."

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

Edited by author 05-12-2008 03:48 PM
VIDEO-SLOW, STEADY AND UNDER SIEGE

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-to...y11,0,5101478.story

Mojave Tortoises Moved for Army Training

FORT IRWIN, Calif. (AP) - Scientists have begun moving the Mojave Desert's flagship species, the desert tortoise, to make room for tank training at the Army's Fort Irwin despite protests by some conservationists.

The controversial project, billed as the largest desert tortoise move in California history, involves transferring 770 endangered reptiles from Army land to a dozen public plots overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Fort Irwin has sought to expand its 643,000-acre training site into tortoise territory for two decades. The Army said it needs an extra 131,000 acres to accommodate faster tanks and longer-range weapons used each month to train some 4,000 troops.

Desert tortoises are the longest-living reptiles in the Southwest with a potential life span of 100 years and can weigh up to 15 pounds. Their population has been threatened in recent years by urbanization, disease and predators including the raven.

Weeks before the relocation, two conservation groups threatened to sue Fort Irwin. The Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors contend that the land set aside for the desert tortoises is too close to an interstate highway and is plagued with off-road vehicles and illegal dumping that would disturb the animals.

The groups served Fort Irwin with a 60-day notice of intent to sue and plan to file the lawsuit after the desert tortoises have been moved.

"There's still a lot of work that needs to be done to make the relocation site more habitable ... so the animals would survive better there," said Ileene Anderson, a staff biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Fort Irwin lawyers and federal wildlife officials determined the claims were unfounded and decided to go ahead with the $8.5 million project. The process began last weekend and will last two weeks. The tortoises, including about 67 babies, are being moved into habitats approved by the U.S. Geological Survey and other experts.

"The translocation of tortoises is a very complex process," Fort Irwin spokesman John Wagstaffe said in a recent interview. "You have to move them gently and make sure they don't get stressed during the move."

About a year before the transfer, biologists tagged desert tortoises living in the proposed training expansion area with radio transmitters and took blood tests to make sure they were healthy.

Scientists have a short window to relocate the animals, which recently awakened from winter hibernation and will return to their burrows in the summer.

Last weekend, a group equipped with receivers scanned the desert for signs of the tagged tortoises, placed them in plastic containers and hauled them to their new home. They were given water and released.

Scientists will continue to monitor the relocated tortoises for signs of stress.

Research studies show relocated tortoises typically spend the first year roaming. Over time, they settle down and survive as well as tortoises that stayed put, said Roy Averill-Murray, desert tortoise recovery coordinator with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Reno, Nev.

"We're plopping them down in a new area that they're not familiar with so they spend the first year or so learning their surroundings and where the good burrow sites are," Averill-Murray said Thursday.

Averill-Murray helped plan the Fort Irwin project, but is not involved in the actual move.

Desert tortoises gets 'head start' to survival

by Senior Airman Stacy Sanchez
95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

5/14/2008 - EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- As part of Edwards effort to increase the desert tortoise population, people from Environmental Management here established the Head Start Program.

The Head Start Program, started four years ago and located in the southern central portion of Edwards, is designed to bolster the population of younger age class tortoises to adult ages.

"The desert tortoise is officially listed as threatened under the federal endangered species act," said Mark Hagan, Environmental Management natural resource manager. "The decline in the population has been so drastic to the point of becoming endangered."

Urbanization, off-road vehicles and major highways put stress on the desert habitat causing the decline of the tortoise population, Mr. Hagan said.

To help young tortoises survive, the Head Start Program built five tortoise pens to protect them from predators.

"We have put up these pens to help protect (tortoises) during their early life stage," Mr. Hagan said. "When we feel that they are at the stage where they can survive on their own, we can release them back into the desert. Hopefully, this will give them a better chance of survival."

The hatchery process begins with the collection of 20 adult females out in the desert, Mr. Hagan said. To keep track of their location at all times throughout the year, radio transmitters are put on the tortoises. During the spring time, when female tortoises start laying eggs, they are weighed, X-rayed and brought to the pens to lay their eggs. Once the females tortoises have laid their eggs, the adult tortoises are taken back to the location from where they were found.

Of the five pens built, three are for healthy tortoises while the other two pens are for ones that show signs of disease, Mr. Hagan said. Currently, the tortoises in the pens range from 1 to 4 years old. 

Edwards adopted the head start studies from Fort Irwin, Calif. -- the first base to begin the Head Start Program and hatchery, he said. As a federal agency, the Air Force has a requirement to help restore and recover endangered species, such as the desert tortoise.

Since the inception of the Head Start Program, EM workers have been studying the age group that will have the greatest chance of survival.

"There are a few phases to the Head Start Program," said Amber Bruno, an Environmental Management natural resources biologist. "Not only are we looking at what rate a young tortoise should be released out into the wild, (but) we are also looking to see if providing supplemental irrigation to their pens can enhance the growth rate of the tortoises and shorten the time that is needed for the tortoises shell to harden."

Over the last four years, two batches of tortoises were released back into the wild. They were released in the fall to mimic their natural cycle. When the first group of 15 1-year-old tortoises were released, subsequent studies showed the tortoises were susceptible to predators -- primarily ravens.

In 2007, another 32 tortoises were released -- some near the pens, while others at a remote location. 

This is to see if there is a significant difference when they are released on various location, Ms. Bruno said. 

"The data is still preliminary, but we have found that 1-year-old tortoises are still not big enough to resist predators." she said. 

Also discovered, she said, is that tortoise eggs are prone to predators such as the antelope ground squirrel and fire ants.

Since the beginning of the project, tortoises here have laid 395 eggs; 190 of which have hatched.

"However, there is not a lot of data for the hatch rate of tortoises in the wild," Ms. Bruno said. "When we are out in desert environment, it is almost impossible to find tortoise nests with eggs. 

"Now, we have the advantage of knowing where the females made their nest, laid their eggs and the number of eggs that hatch," she said. "On base, we are now experiencing more than a 75-percent hatching rate. This is really good."

Environmental Management is also studying the paternity of the tortoises.

"We look at the genetic and reproductive studies here," Mr. Hagan said. "Genetics is important in species management. We have done a paternity study of the paternal relationship of tortoises, and what we have found is that all female tortoises have multiple mates. Almost 90 percent of the nests here have multiple fathers."

Knowing the different aspect of the reproduction while managing a species is important, he said. This helps give a genetic diversity to protect the species through time.

"This project is showing a lot of promise," Ms. Bruno said. "We are learning a lot here, and if we apply this program, it may serve to help recover a (threatened) species and allow the tortoise to survive and increase in population." 

Team Edwards can do their part to help desert tortoises by being aware of the environment they are in, Ms. Bruno said. 

People should be aware of the impact they may have on the environment, she said. They must stay on the trails when they are off-roading and when found, tortoises must be left alone.

"The Air Force is hoping to test the technology and the techniques here and refine them," Ms. Bruno said. "Once the team learns more and can prove that this program works, it can be relayed to other federal agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management. On a regional approach throughout the desert, organizations can also start more of these head-start locations to recover the desert tortoise throughout its range."

http://www.edwards.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123098659

Coyotes Killing Endangered Turtles
Victor Valley Daily Press
April 17, 2008

http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/killing_5...urtles_barstow.html

BARSTOW — Coyotes have killed at least 11 desert tortoises recently moved to make way for Army tank training exercises north of Barstow.


The problem coyotes, thought to be attacking tortoises because the drought has left fewer rabbits in its wake, will be tracked and possibly killed by a federal agency to help protect the tortoises -- a species threatened with extinction.


All together, 23 tortoises have been killed since the large-scale relocation of more than 700 reptiles began in March south of the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, said John Wagstaffe, an Army spokesman.


The Army started moving the tortoises in late March from the southern boundary of the National Training Center at Fort Irwin as part of an $8.5 million effort to deal with the threatened species while expanding its training grounds into the land considered critical for the tortoises.


The move capped a 20-year battle between the military and environmentalists.


Some of the tortoises were already living in the relocation area.


Roy Averill-Murray, who is the desert tortoises’ recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said three tortoises survived attacks. Two tortoises had one of their legs chewed off, and one required treatment after being found flipped over on its shell for three days in a row, Averill-Murray said.


Dr. Leonard Sigdestad at Loma Linda Animal Hospital in San Bernardino operated on two of the tortoises last week and amputated one maggot-infested leg from each of them. He released them back to the federal biologists who are monitoring the tortoises in the wild.


Kristin Berry, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S Geological Survey, took one of the tortoises to her Riverside home to care for it. She said it can barely walk but she hopes it can one day be returned to the wild.


The U.S. Bureau of Land Management oversees much of the land selected for relocating the displaced tortoises.


Attacks by coyotes on tortoises are rare, said Averill-Murray. He said that with the drought in the Mojave Desert over the past few years, coyotes outnumber rabbits, their typical food source.


“The coyotes are just desperate and the tortoises are a tough food item to eat with that big shell,” he said. “Rabbits would be easier, but when there aren’t many rabbits, then tortoises seem to be their next choice.”


Berry, with the USGS, said short-lived animals like rabbits don’t bounce back quickly from drought.


She said coyotes recently have killed tortoises in other study plots in California and Nevada. This spring, she said, presented a good time to relocate the reptiles from Fort Irwin because of the abundance of wildflowers, their main food source.


“We hoped with the flush of wildflowers we might be seeing some ground squirrels and other rodents the coyotes could eat,” Berry said. “You can take it into account but we can’t control every aspect of nature, if any.”


The wildlife service division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the same agency that plans to shoot ravens found preying on young tortoises in other parts of the Mojave Desert, will help the Army remove the coyotes in three, one-square-mile plots where many of the dead reptiles were found. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has concurred with the Army’s plans to shoot or use traps and decoy dogs to lure the coyotes within shooting range.


“The plan is just to keep this as targeted and as limited as possible to alleviate the pressure. It’s not widespread,” Averill-Murray said. He added that there’s no evidence of major preying throughout the habitat where the tortoises were moved.


Two environmental groups have threatened to sue the Army over the large-scale relocation of the tortoises, and they plan to go ahead with the lawsuit to ensure the new habitat is managed actively, said Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.


Anderson agreed with Averill-Murray that the drought has caused an imbalance in the ecosystem. But she said that’s no excuse for putting the tortoises in harm’s way.


“While we’re devastated, we’re not shocked this is happening,” she said. “You’re putting these animals out there and if they’re the only thing moving, they’re going to be a target for predators.”

Paradise Valley, a town of 35,000-plus proposed in desert

10:00 PM PDT on Monday, May 19, 2008

By STEVE MOORE

The Press-Enterprise

It's a whole new town for 35,000 to 40,000 people along Interstate 10 in the
middle of Riverside County.

Paradise Valley is a huge master-planned community -- even for a booming
region such as the Inland area.

Environmentalists watch closely as Riverside County prepares for a vote on
the proposed project -- possibly next year.

The Shavers Valley area is east of Indio near the southern boundary of
Joshua Tree National Park.

Developers plan 12,500 homes over the next 20 to 25 years and 3 million
square feet of commercial space.

The site covers 5,400 acres--about 8 ½ square miles. Company officials say
about 40 percent would remain untouched as open space.

"We don't see it as a suburb of the Coachella Valley," said Harvey R.
Niskala, senior vice president for GLC Enterprises LLC. "And that's why we
don't look at it as sprawl.

"It's a destination, a new town that will take time to grow.

"With what's happening today in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, we
don't see it as that far off."

Doubts

Critics say the sheer scope of Paradise Valley would drain water supplies,
pave over habitat for such important species as the desert tortoise and
peninsular desert bighorn sheep, and urbanize a scenic area at the very
doorstep of a national park.

"Shavers Valley shouldn't be sacrificed for this reckless land speculation,"
said Jonathan Evans, a staff lawyer for the Center for Biological Diversity.
"It's more like 'Paradise Lost' -- building a new city in a largely pristine
wilderness.

"There's nothing out there ... building a city far beyond the fringes of the
Coachella Valley is a desert 'mirage' that shouldn't have been considered."
Donna Charpied is a policy advocate for the Center for Community Action and
Environmental Justice, which has offices in Indio, Riverside and San
Bernardino.

"There just isn't enough water," she said. "And with global warming, paving
over more of the desert just makes no sense.

"I still say it's 'sprawl on steroids.'

"Paradise Valley flies in the face of logic with today's economy and what's
happening in the housing market."

But others say it won't always be so.

Fred Bell, executive director for Desert Chapter of the Building Industry
Association, closely tracks development and the Coachella Valley's real
estate market.

He sees a "bottoming out" of foreclosure and subprime lending problems by
year's end, the market stabilizing in 2009 and renewed growth in 2010.
"With a project the size of Paradise Valley, people will just have to be
patient," Bell said.

Tread Lightly

Glorious Land Co. acquired the acreage during the 1990s and now owns it
outright, Niskala said.

GLC Enterprises says the Riverside County general plan -- a guide to future
development -- envisions the Shavers Valley area along I-10, from the
easterly edge of the Coachella Valley to Chiriaco Summit, as a spot for
self-contained new towns.

Niskala also outlined how GLC Enterprises is working on water, habitat and
becoming a good neighbor to the national park.

A water-transfer agreement with the Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water District in the
Bakersfield area will provide a permanent supply, Niskala said. The Colorado
River Aqueduct runs through the property. Conservation measures include
using reclaimed water on golf courses and landscaping with large amounts of
native desert plantings.

Paradise Valley would comply with the Multi-Species Habitat Conservation
Plan for the Coachella Valley and would purchase additional land, Niskala
said.

GLC Enterprises plans to set aside a buffer zone for the national park on
about 40 acres in the northwestern portion of the project, an area once
planned for homes, Niskala said. The master-planned community and the
national park are about one-quarter- to one-half--mile apart at various
points, Niskala said.

The project would abide by Riverside County's "dark sky" ordinance aimed at
enhancing stargazing, Niskala said.

Joe Zarki, chief naturalist/public information officer for the park, said,
"We're increasingly seeing 'urban Southern California' coming to the park,
and that will change the character over time."

The Paradise Valley property is about seven miles east of Coachella, Niskala
said.

Initial access to the project would come from I-10, using an existing
frontage road exit.

Pressure and Controversy

The Paradise Valley site lies in Riverside County's 4th District, which is
represented by Supervisor Roy Wilson.
"With the environmental challenges, this isn't an easy project to
accomplish," he said. "I'm concerned about the impact of something this
large.

"But I see it as part of the development pressure facing Riverside County
and the Inland Empire. Everyone is looking for some place to put those
people," he said.

Wilson said he will remain neutral until after public testimony.
But he sees controversy ahead.

"I call it the 'son of Eagle Mountain,' " he said, referring a bitter battle-- still tied up in the courts -- over turning an old iron-ore mine near Joshua Tree National Park into one of the nation's largest landfills.
Some in nearby desert hamlets like Chiriaco Summit and Lake Tamarisk Country Club can't wait for the services and growth a Paradise Valley community would bring.

Margit Chiriaco Rusche carries on a family tradition of running a freeway
travel center.

"We don't see the project as a threat," she said. "We're looking forward to
having them as neighbors."

Dan Rettagliata lives in Lake Tamarisk Country Club, north of Desert Center.

Grocery shopping means making a day of it -- driving 100 miles round trip to Palm Desert.

He attended a recent community meeting on Paradise Valley. "I'm all for it," Rettagliata said.

Reach Steve Moore at 760-322-5738 or stevemoore@PE.com

http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stor...dise20.426ecde.html

Army moves ahead with tortoise transfer


Number 2010 pulled his head and feet into his shell as he was lifted out of the plastic storage container, weighed and placed under a creosote bush.

The six-and-a-half pound desert tortoise hid under the bush, spending his Friday morning evaluating his new habitat, a plot of desert land 10 miles south of his previous home in the middle of Fort Irwin's future training ground. After a few moments in the shade, 2010's head protruded out and he ambled into the sunlight to munch on some nearby wildflowers.

William Boarman, the chief scientist working on the Army's $8.5 million contract to eventually move 764 tortoises from Fort Irwin, said that 2010 and 36 other tortoises moved on Friday will take some time adjusting to their new homes.

"Sometimes they move right away, sometimes they sit for an hour or two," he said.

Contractor ITS, Fort Irwin officials and researchers from the United States Geological Survey are in the second year of the five-year effort to relocate, conserve and study the animals.

As part of the move, tortoises are transported by a helicopter in FAA-approved plastic bins and released one at a time into a series of habitats. Before releasing them into the wild, biologists check the tortoises' radio transmitters, small boxy units affixed with epoxy onto the reptiles' shells. The transmitters will allow the tortoises to be tracked from miles away, enabling biologists to research how tortoises adapt to the relocation and interact with tortoises already living on the land, Boarman said. Some of the tortoises were moved into man-made burrows and others were left to redig their own homes.

Kristen Berry, a wildlife biologist from the USGS, said that although thousands of desert tortoises have been moved through other projects, she believes Fort Irwin's effort is one of the largest tortoise relocation efforts attempted.
"We're moving an entire population," she said.

Berry, who began studying the reptiles in 1971 when the populations were in decline, said that she's happy to have the opportunity to conduct research about how disease spreads among the reptiles. In addition to disease, the tortoises face a human threat.

"There's an Asian turtle trade that's a problem, and there's been cases of poaching the West Mojave," she said.

She said that she's heard cases of humans vandalizing and even sometimes shooting the tortoises but hopes that the radio tracking will allow officials to prevent any problems.

Boarman said that the plots of land the tortoises are being moved to is pretty typical habitat for the animals.

"There are better places where tortoises live; there are worse places where tortoises live," he said. "There's not a lot known that makes really good tortoise habitat."

Although some environmental groups say the move will harm the endangered reptiles, Boarman said he thinks they'll do fine in their new homes.

Ileene Anderson, staff biologist from the Center for Biological Diversity, said that her group is worried the relocated tortoises, while already given blood tests and medical care, may be in danger in their new homes.

"They're moving them into an area with animals that are known to have disease," she said. "There's going to be a lot of movement among tortoise populations that could be sick."

She said her group, which has declared its intent to sue the Army to stop the move, would prefer to see more protections for the tortoises in their new habitat, such as a ban on off-highway vehicle use and fewer roads.

Did you know?


During their helicopter ride, some tortoises urinated in their containers due to fright of flight. Before releasing them into the wild, biologists have to clean off the tortoises so that the reptiles’ distinctive smell is not detected by coyotes and other predators.

http://www.desertdispatch.com/news/tortois.../move_reptiles.html

Edited by author 05-22-2008 06:13 PM
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Off-roaders Leaving Environmentalists in the Dust
It's a zero-sum game between conservationists and four-wheelers, according to a University of Idaho academic, and one that those who favor the pristine can never win.

Off-roaders may be winning the battle for access to public lands, and there's not much environmentalists can do about it, according to a new study from the University of Idaho.

Because of their traditions and built-in policies, the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are inherently predisposed to favor motorized recreation, said Patrick Wilson, an associate professor of natural resource policy in the university's department of conservation social sciences.

Historically, Wilson said, the managers of public lands have focused on such uses as timber, mining and grazing. Now, he said, they're trying to accommodate an explosion in recreational use, especially by off-roaders. The agencies seek compromises because that's how American democracy resolves conflicting claims.

And they find it easier, Wilson said, to set aside specific areas for off-roaders than to defend "a diffuse set of indirect ecological values.

"If the foes of motorized recreational interests think they're going to see them off, they're wrong," he said. "The American system of government doesn't produce the outcomes that conservationists are asking for. Motorized recreation is going to ebb and flow, but it's here to stay. If you're interested in scaling back the use, it's going to be a lot harder than you think."

During the 1980s and 1990s, off-road driving of jeeps, cars, motorcycles, pickups and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) became one of the fastest-growing outdoor sports in the United States, a February 2008 Forest Service report shows. Between 1995 and 2003, the sales of off-road vehicles tripled to more than 1 million per year. Today, there are believed to be nearly 10 million such vehicles in the U.S. Nearly one in five Americans over the age of 16 has ridden one in the past year.

While off-road use on national forest lands has increased sevenfold during the past 30 years, Kathleen Mick, the program manager for motorized recreation in California's national forests, disputes Wilson's contention that off-roaders are getting the upper hand. The Forest Service, she said, now regards "unmanaged" recreation — such as off-roaders carving "doughnuts" in fragile meadows — as one of the four greatest threats to the health of the nation's forests and grasslands (along with fire, invasive species and the loss of open space).

Presently, 11 out of 18 forests in California allow off-roaders to travel cross-country, away from designated roads and trails. Under a federal order, though, most California forests have until late this year to draw up maps showing off-roaders where they can and can't go. The rest of the nation's forests have until 2010 to finish the maps.

"There won't be vast open acres of the national forest where people can drive where they want," Mick said. "Motor vehicles will be allowed on designated roads and trails. The federal agencies do a very delicate dance. Our mission has always boiled down to caring for the land and serving people, and we do our best to balance that."

But Wilson regards the forests' mapping effort as another win for off-roaders. He said it puts motorized recreation on a par with conservation, implicitly rejecting the premise that the primary goal should be to preserve the forest for future generations.
The story, Wilson said, is repeated at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, where the Park Service invested heavily during the 1950s in road expansion and winter lodging, paving the way for today's snowmobiles — and today's lawsuits.

After spending 10 years and $10 million on environmental studies, the Park Service recently imposed a cap of 540 snowmobiles per day at Yellowstone, down from 720, effective next November. The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club and other groups promptly filed suit, seeking to ban snowmobiles and allow only snowcoaches, a kind of tour bus on skis.

The International Snowmobile Manufacturers Association is trying to intervene in the case, and the State of Wyoming has sued, too, arguing that the reduce d cap on snowmobiles is illegal.

"The ATV users have a lot of political clout," Wilson said. "They make the argument that the public lands are not exclusively for ecological protection. It's far easier for the ATVers to hold on to what they have than it is for the environmental community to overcome that."

Jay Turner, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Wellesley College, said Wilson's arguments are well-founded.
"He highlights for us the scale and scope and challenge that motorized recreation interests pose," Turner said.

"As larger-scale proposals for protecting the public land were broached by advocacy groups in the '80s and '90s and were actively considered by the Clinton administration, that made the motorized groups nervous. That's in part why they have organized as well and as effectively as they have."

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the California Desert Protection Act, designating 71 new wilderness areas in the Mojave Desert. Wilderness areas are off-limits to motorized recreation, and some scholars point to the legislation as evidence that off-roaders may not be "winning." Just this month, they noted, President Bush signed into law the Wild Sky Wilderness, protecting 106,000 acres in the Washington Cascades.

Peter Alagona, a Harvard Environmental Fellow and a historian of land management, and Kevin Marsh, an associate professor and a historian of public lands at Idaho State University, also said it's an oversimplification to frame the debate in terms of off-roaders vs. environmentalists. They note that there are fishermen, hunters, mountain bikers, horse packers, hikers and backpackers who support resource protection on public lands.

The crux of the problem with off-roaders, Marsh said, is that the agencies lack the courage and the support to enforce their own regulations.

"It's not that the rules are wrong," Marsh said. "Nobody is willing to put the resources into enforcing those rules."

The Park Service has done the best job in controlling off-roaders because of — and not in spite of — its long tradition of managing recreation, Marsh said. "The Forest Service and the BLM are dealing with it way over their heads. The BLM has the smallest tradition of managing recreation and the biggest problem with off-road vehicles."

A case in point is the Algodones Dunes in Southern California, a spot visited by more than 100,000 off-roaders on holiday weekends. The dunes are home to the desert tortoise and Peirson's milk-vetch, species designated by the federal government as threatened.

By order of former President Richard Nixon, 26,000 acres of the 160,000-acre dunes were closed to off-roaders in 1973. The closed area was designated as a wilderness in 1994 under the Desert Protection Act. The Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, sued for a larger closure, and the BLM recently banned off-roaders from an additional 49,000 acres. The ban is temporary, pending the completion of a new management plan. More than half the dune system remains open to off-roaders.

"We're predisposed to manage for multiple use," said Stephen Razo, a spokesman for the California desert district of the BLM. "We have been known to close routes. We have been known to open routes. Each side says we're always taking away.

"We feel like if everyone is mad at us, we're probably doing our job."

http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/395

Renewable energy projects meet opposition from environmentalists

(PLEASE USE LINK PROVIDED, MAPS, ETC, AVAILABLE!!)
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories...able03.3cc481c.html

10:08 PM PDT on Monday, June 2, 2008

By JENNIFER BOWLES
The Press-Enterprise

A rush to build environmentally friendly renewable energy in the windy, sunny Inland region has stirred up some unlikely foes: environmentalists.

They say the projects mean new transmission lines and towers across some of the very mountains and desert vistas people have fought to protect.

"It seems kind of silly to have a solar project in Blythe (in eastern Riverside County) and send it along transmission lines," said Jeff Morgan, chairman of the Sierra Club group in the Coachella Valley. "They should put them on the roofs of Los Angeles. It's best and most efficient when it's used where it is generated."

It's not just environmentalists who are objecting. A Riverside County supervisor said he opposes plans to erect 400-foot-tall wind turbines for the first time on the 4,000-foot elevation of Mount San Jacinto, near Palm Springs. And a San Bernardino County supervisor has strongly urged Los Angeles to abandon plans to string new transmission lines to carry renewable energy through the Morongo Basin east of Joshua Tree National Park.

Apple Valley leaders passed a resolution in April opposing plans to erect wind turbines along the ridgeline of the Granite Mountain range east of town.

"There's almost a Gold Rush type of thing happening in the Inland Empire and up in the desert to capture what we have here," said Scott Nassif, an Apple Valley town councilman.

"They're great resources," Nassif said of the wind and sun, "but we need to make sure we're approaching it the right way and know the impacts on the communities."

He noted that while the projects might be located in the Inland region, they benefit much of Southern California by feeding into the electricity grid.

Mike Marelli, power contract manager for Southern California Edison, said the state's utility companies may not have much choice about building new transmission lines. Edison and other utilities must meet a legislative mandate to have 20 percent of their energy production from renewable sources by 2010.

"For renewable energy to really move forward," Marelli said, "there has to a significant investment in transmission."

Tortoises found on casino land


By KURT SCHAUPPNER / The Desert Trail Wednesday, June 11, 2008 4:00 PM PDT
 
 
TWENTYNINE PALMS — Yes, there are tortoises living on Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indian land here.

The tribe, which operates a casino in Indio, is making plans to open a casino and RV park on 160 acres of land it owns south and east of the corner of Baseline and Adobe roads.

Rod Wilson, a spokesman for the tribe, confirmed on Monday, June 9 that tortoises were found on the 160-acre site about two weeks prior.

Following a study which found no tortoises on the site and comments by neighbors of the site that tortoises can be found on the property, Wilson said tribal officials committed to conducting another study.

“A number of neighbors said they had seen tortoises,” he said, noting that the second survey also was preceded by a number of meetings with National Park Service officials.

“The tribe did find tortoises on the property,” Wilson said, though he added that he did not know how many tortoises were found or where they were located on the property.

  
He added that he did not foresee the discovery causing any delays in the tribe’s plans, which call for a grand opening at the end of March 2009.

“We already had in place a tortoise protocol,” he said.

That protocol, he said, deals with tortoises or any other species that are found on the site.

“The tribe is meeting with the biologists, We haven’t made any formal announcements. We haven’t finished all the comments on the E.A.,” he said, referring to the Environmental Assessment which was previously prepared for the project.

 
 
“We don’t want to make false steps,” he said, adding that tribal officials are thinking through all the issues.

Treatment of the tortoises found on the site, he said, will depend on where the tortoises are found and may include fencing off and protecting the tortoises’ location.

If tortoises are found in the immediate area of a construction site, he said, they will be moved to another portion of the 160-acre property.

“We will take care of them, make sure they are properly handled,” he said. “No one is denying it or trying to suggest we are not prepared.”

Wilson also took time to respond to word that the tribe was planning to clear vegetation from most or all of the 160-acre site.

“I don’t know how that all got started,” he said.

Wilson added that some clearing will be required to prepare the site to handle a 100-year or even a 200-year storm though he did not know how much would be cleared.

“Whatever is touched will be replanted,” he said. “We will, or course, be bringing in additional natural vegetation.”

It would not be in the tribe’s interest, he said, to strip the land bare.

The tribe, he noted, is in the final stages of reviewing comments on the projects environmental assessment

“We expect some time fairly soon for there to be an announcement on all the comments,” he said. “There will be no groundbreaking until the E.A. has been finalized and approved.”

Comments, he said, have been received from community members as well as city, county and state officials.

They deal with everything from desert tortoises to the impact of the project on area traffic patterns.
 
http://www.deserttrail.com/articles/2008/06/11/news/news3.txt

Hearings to debate impact of solar farms on threatened species

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories...olar15.48dbdb9.html

10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, June 14, 2008

By JENNIFER BOWLES
The Press-Enterprise

State and federal agencies have their hands full with an onslaught of applications from companies eyeing the Southern California desert for its solar power potential.

The federal government is holding hearings beginning Monday in Riverside to get public input on the environmental impacts of solar farms, while state agencies are seeking to balance Gov. Schwarzenegger's push for solar energy with the need to protect endangered species that live on the sun-drenched landscape.

Habitat for the desert tortoise, Mohave ground squirrel and other imperiled species is scattered across eastern Riverside County and much of San Bernardino County.

"Solar projects in particular have a footprint that reduces the habitat suitability for those species; there's the potential for conflict," said Kevin Hunting, deputy director of the California Department of Fish and Game.

"It's all about planning and siting, and we believe there's room for both out there," he said Friday.

Renewable energy reduces the state's reliance on coal-generated power, a major contributor of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. Such projects have been a prime focus for Gov. Schwarzenegger, who criticized the Fish and Game Department during an April speech at Yale University for slowing a solar project in Victorville to protect habitat for the Mohave ground squirrel, a species threatened with extinction.

"So a squirrel that may not exist (at that location) is holding up environmental progress on a larger and more pressing fight against global warming," the governor said.

He also voiced frustration because some environmentalists have criticized certain renewable-energy proposals because they would require new transmission lines across the very lands they fought to protect.

Five proposed solar farms, for instance, would cover some 33,295 acres near Desert Center in eastern Riverside County; two of them would sit within a mile of Joshua Tree National Park's southeastern boundary, said Claude Kirby, a realty specialist for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which is handling applications on federal land.

The hearings starting next week will be hosted by the BLM and the U.S. Department of Energy to gather public input on environmental, social and economic issues that should be considered when approving solar farms in California and five other Western states.

There are 66 applications for solar farms across more than 518,573 acres in the BLM's desert district, which includes eastern Riverside County and much of San Bernardino County. The agency put a hold on any new applications until an assessment of the impacts is complete.

Donna Charpied, an activist who farms organic jojoba near Desert Center, said the solar farms would be just one more thing to mar the desert landscape near the national park where tortoises roam. She has long battled a proposal to turn a former iron-ore mine near the park into one of the nation's largest landfills. The fate of that proposal is being decided in the courts.

"What really aggravates me is, our desert is not a wasteland for urban area problems," she said. "They are exporting their pollution and importing our electricity. We just have to stop that mentality."

Charpied suggested that more projects emulate one under way by Southern California Edison to install solar panels on several warehouse roofs in Inland Southern California, including Fontana.

Staff writer Michelle DeArmond contributed to this report. Reach Jennifer Bowles at 951-368-9548 or jbowles@PE.com. Or check out her blog at www.pe.com/blogs/environment

Solar Plan Meetings

Federal agencies are holding meetings to get public input on plans for solar energy farms in six Western states, including California.

Riverside

When: 6 p.m. Monday

Where: Courtyard by Marriott, 1510 University Ave.

Barstow

When: 6 p.m. Tuesday

Where: City Council Chambers, 220 E. Mountain View St.

To register and more information: http://solareis.anl.gov/index.cfm

Don’t trash Joshua Tree National Park
Essay - July 16, 2008
by Seth Shteir

http://www.hcn.org/articles/17783


Which word doesn’t belong with “national park?” Wildflowers, wildlife, hiking, night sky, garbage dump? No doubt you answered “garbage dump,” yet the biggest landfill in the United States may be developed right next to California’s Joshua Tree National Park.

Fortunately, a lawsuit filed by the National Parks Conservation Association and others is trying to halt this misguided proposal. The lawsuit, currently under appeal in the federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, argues that the landfill fails to serve the public interest, that a land exchange making the dump possible was improper, and the environmental impact statement flawed.

"Who would have thought that a federal agency that is supposed to be looking out for the best interests of U.S. citizens would have allowed this ridiculous proposal to come this far?” says Ron Sundergill, Pacific Region director of the National Parks Conservation Association.

The dump would receive 20,000 tons of trash each day from all over southern California, and over its 117-year lifetime, 700 billion pounds of trash would accumulate, towering 1,500 feet high over the rock-studded desert. What’s harder to believe is that the landfill would be surrounded on three sides by Joshua Tree National Park.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that a dump this size would destabilize the fragile desert ecosystem. Losers almost certainly would be desert bighorn and the endangered desert tortoise; winners would be predatory ravens benefiting from the new free food. Noise and light pollution from the trucks and machinery would definitely impair the naturalness of the park, and although some will argue that the nation needs more landfills, it’s hard to make the case that this particular project is in the best interest of the public.

The way the deal came about is also questionable. The BLM’s land transfer with Kaiser Ventures was improper because it disregarded the Federal Lands Management Policy Act. The act states that land transfers cannot significantly conflict with management on adjacent federal lands. Yet by trading land to create the nation’s biggest dump, the BLM undermined the Park Service’s management of sensitive lands within Joshua Tree National Park.

It’s not just the ecological ramifications of this battleship-sized landfill that should have people worried. A National Parks Conservation Association report showed that in 2001, the 1.3 million visitors to Joshua tree contributed $46.3 million to the local economy and supported 1,115 jobs. Desert tortoises and bighorn sheep wouldn’t be the only species harmed by the Eagle Mountain Landfill.

The national parks nonprofit and other individuals also say that the land exchange between the BLM and Kaiser Ventures was flawed. When the public land necessary for the exchange was appraised, the BLM identified its value in vague terms -- “holding for speculative investment and future capital appreciation” -- instead of acknowledging that its acquisition by Kaiser Ventures would likely mean it would become a major landfill. This resulted in an undervalued appraisal and taxpayers getting a raw deal. Ultimately, the swap of 3,481 acres of public land brought in a mere $20,100. Kaiser’s non-contiguous parcels that were transferred to the BLM also added little value to public lands. The paracels lie along the Eagle Mountain Rail Line, the very rail line that would haul trash to the landfill.

Although the National Park Service has accepted the environmental impact statement for the Eagle Mountain Landfill, some federal agency representatives say they remain concerned about the impact of the dump. It is the National Parks Conservation Association and other park-lovers who have taken on the job of challenging the EIS because of its narrowly defined statement of purpose. The EIS is, in fact, a facsimile of Kaiser Venture’s business plan, and the effect of its narrow purpose statement led to limited alternatives. For example, there is no mention anywhere in the EIS of investigating other landfill sites on BLM land or increasing the size and use of existing landfills.

Allowing the nation’s largest landfill next to a national park is a little like building a roller coaster next door to an elementary school. It’s simply a poor idea. Let’s hope that the court understands that a national park visited by millions of people each year can’t be neighbors to a noisy, spreading landfill. The tragedy, though, is that a court must make this decision.

Seth Shteir is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of High Country News (hcn.org). He is vice president of the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society in southern California.