The federal government wants your help to mull over strategies for recovering the threatened Mojave population of the desert tortoise by commenting on a draft version of the Revised Recovery Plan written by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
A draft of the plan will be published Monday in the Federal Register, which opens a 90-day public comment period. A copy of the draft will be posted at fws.gov/nevada.

Habitat for the desert tortoise includes the Mojave and Sonoran deserts in Southern California, southern Nevada, Arizona and the southwestern tip of Utah, along with part of northern Mexico.

The main threat to the tortoise is due to human land uses, which create habitat loss and degradation by way of off-road vehicles and urbanization, livestock grazing, mining and military activities.

Jul. 18, 2008


County drafts own plan for desert tortoise
By MARK WAITE


After months of wrangling, Nye County Commissioners Tuesday passed their own draft of a desert tortoise habitat conservation plan.

Commissioner Butch Borasky only asked for a few changes to some of the wording, like deleting a reference to the county natural resources department, which no longer exists.

Chairwoman Joni Eastley didn't ask for public comment. Consultant Julene Haworth, who drafted the plan, was at the speaker's table but didn't have to make a comment. Eastley said nobody submitted a written request to comment.

Developer Tim Hafen, who was very vocal in his opposition to previous desert tortoise plans submitted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sat quietly in the back row.

The plan allows an incidental take of the endangered desert tortoise on up to 500 acres of private land in the fee zone of the Pahrump Regional Planning District at a cost of $325 per acre. The fees will be charged by the Nye County Planning Department at the time other mandatory fees are collected.

Previous plans drafted by consultants in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, suggested a permit that would allow disturbing up to 100 acres, with fees of $550 per acre or $250 per acre in the fee areas, which are mostly on the perimeter of developed areas in the Pahrump Valley.

The county states its request is based on a lack of desert tortoises in the district, as indicated by numerous scientific tortoise surveys. The study refers to surveys for the 80-acre landfill site in 1992 and a 2006 study of two acres for a water tower near Manse Road and Highway 160.

The effect to the desert tortoise of allowing an incidental taking on the 500 acres would be minor because the habitat is marginal for desert tortoises and in decline, the county states. A higher quality habitat also exists outside the covered area, the county states.

The county plan states it would be better for the survival of the desert tortoise if mitigation fees were spent on conservation measures to preserve the tortoises in the wild, not to deal with tortoises which may have the potential to be displaced by development. The county suggests mitigation fees could be used to enhance desert tortoise habitat on public lands to offset the loss of up to 500 acres.

A plan administrator, trained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will be able to conduct surveys prior to construction and remove any tortoises that may be encountered.

A habitat conservation plan advisory committee will be appointed, consisting of volunteers from stakeholder groups like real estate, builders, town board members and at least one veterinarian or a person with a history of working with animals.

The county plan is Phase I in the development of a long-term desert tortoise conservation plan.

Nye County will develop an annual report to be submitted to the fish and wildlife service detailing any tortoises killed or injured, acreage disturbed by construction, mitigation fees collected and spent and a summary of habitat rehabilitation efforts.

The fish and wildlife service would have the burden of showing that an unforeseen event has occurred which is likely to have an adverse impact on the desert tortoise to reduce the likelihood of their survival in the wild to incite change in the regulations.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has 60 days to provide any revisions to the plan, or disapprove it entirely. Eastley predicted fish and wildlife would probably reject the plan, on her way out of the Bob Ruud Community Center.

http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2008/Jul.../news/22756819.html

Posted: Wednesday, 02 July 2008 5:13AM

Mojave Max Dies Of Natural Causes

 
The Las Vegas Valley's most famous desert tortoise has died. The Bureau of Land Management says Mojave Max passed away of natural causes Monday, at his habitat in Red Rock Canyon. Max was estimated to be 65-years-old. He was Southern Nevada's answer to Punxsutawney Phil. Every year for the past nine years, local school students would compete to determine when Max would emerge from his shell and mark the start of spring in Las Vegas. This year's winner was Conners Elementary student Tesha Kerr, who came within three minutes of predicting when the tortoise would come out of hibernation. A successor to Mojave Max will be named in the near future.

Mesquite, Nevada wants new Airport. Will get it with land to sell to others.
The plans call for a 7,500-foot runway, along with taxiways and connectors, as part of a 2,560-acre parcel of land to be released to the City of Mesquite near I-15’s mile marker 108. While the distant location would create some transportation problems for those who fly in and need to reach the city, the FAA indicated that there are significant advantages to the location, particularly in the arena of Detectable Noise Levels (DNL). According to the Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the FAA, the proposed project would not “cause a significant noise impact based on FAA’s Land Use Compatibility Guidelines,” and in fact “no residences or other noise-sensitive resources would experience an increase of DNL 3.0 or greater.” The study indicates that the city’s current airport has “inadequate runway takeoff lengths,” leading to “aircraft operating restrictions.” It also confirms that “the existing airport is physically constrained by its location,” leading to “limited on-airport development.” The Mesquite Municipal Airport is currently located atop Kitty Hawk Drive, locked in between the world-famous Wolf Creek Golf Course, a collection of upscale residential developments, and the Arizona state line. Because of it’s location, the runway couldn’t be extended to the 7,500-foot level. Also, there is no room to build additional structures or hangars on the property, according to proponents of the move. However, local pilot Douglas Guiver disputes that position. “There is presently a 160-foot by 150-foot lot being used for skydiving that could be turned into hangar space,” Guiver said during his verbal presentation at the hearing. Guiver, who keeps a plane at the airport and lives nearby, explained that he is at the airport five to seven days a week, and disputes the FAA’s estimates that the airport experienced more than 16,000 operations in 2006. “On a busy day, there are only five to seven planes that takeoff and land there,” Guiver said. He also pointed out that “the Overton Airport is only eight nautical miles away, and on a busy day, they only see three or four planes.” Like several owners who keep their aircraft at the Mesquite Airport, Guiver is concerned about the distance to the new airport and the security. “We will have an airport that has no security, no transportation to get to it. This will be 15 miles out of town. It won’t work well with people leaving their planes out there, whether it’s a $100,000 plane or a five-million dollar jet, without any security or transportation.” Guiver pointed out that he also owns a house in a small town in Colorado, and claims that it’s a great location because the airport is conveniently located in the middle of town. He also wanted local citizens to know that the FAA won’t be paying for the new airport, and that it will be an expensive proposition. “We’re talking about spending millions of dollars to move the airport, and the FAA is not paying for construction.” George Michnick, who is a founding member of the local Defend Our Desert group, expressed concerns about the impact on desert tortoises in the area of the proposed airport. “There are quite a number of desert tortoises out that way,” he said. He was also curious about how many jets currently use the Mesquite airport, and the proximity of the city to the new airport. “Being 15 miles away, it won’t attract many business jets because of the transportation and security reasons,” Michnick said. He also pointed out that, with the price of gas today, the FAA needed to assess the costs and fuel impacts for ground travel back and forth from Mesquite to the new location. However, he was supportive of the possibility for passenger service at the new airport. “It would be nice to see some light commercial traffic for folks who would like to travel to other cities without having to travel to Las Vegas or St. George.” Jack Lewis, the only other person to speak during the hearing, lauded the FAA for the study. “You did an excellent job of assembling a whole lot of data,” Lewis said. “It looks like a good project.” Following the third and final speaker, and with no other individuals signing up to speak, FAA official and moderator Barry Franklin offered a 15-minute recess. After resuming, no one else volunteered to speak, and the hearing was adjourned an astounding 45 minutes after it began. The FAA will continue to accept written comments about the project until July 18. After that, a consultant will prepare the final EIS which will be circulated by the FAA, then a final decision will be rendered. According to the FAA document, the proposed airport is tentatively set to open in 2014.

more infomation click on this link http://www.mesquitenv.com/SpotlightArticle/DraftExtension

Consultant presents 'county plan' for desert tortoise mitigation

By MARK WAITE

 
Consultant Julene Haworth presented what she called Nye County's desert tortoise habitat conservation plan last week, not one prepared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Haworth represented developer Tim Hafen at previous workshops in which county commissioners objected to many of the provisions in the previous desert tortoise low effect plans. County Commissioner Roberta "Midge" Carver said those previous plans were adamantly opposed by at least three county commissioners, but hinted the county could adopt this one.

Haworth's proposal would eliminate what she said were the most egregious parts of the previous proposals.

* A county trained individual, probably the plan administrator and an animal control officer as a backup, would be allowed to remove any desert tortoises;

* A biologist would not be required to be on site during construction;

* The amount of acreage that could be disturbed under the plan was increased from 100 acres to 500 acres;

* A flat mitigation fee of $325 per acre in the designated fee zone will be charged, instead of a $250 per acre zone and a $550 per acre zone;

Haworth warned that without the protection of a habitat conservation plan, if wildlife officers saw a desert tortoise on the property they could shut down a large project, like a new Wal-Mart superstore for example.

The county is applying for a Section 10 incidental take permit under the Endangered Species Act, which specifies that accidental taking won't appreciably reduce the likelihood of survival and recovery of the species in the wild.

Nye County has the potential to collect $162,500 in desert tortoise mitigation fees for the 500 acres. The fees would pay for a plan administrator and the mitigation of disturbed, desert tortoise habitat. An advisory committee, similar to one in Clark County, would determine what habitat restoration projects to fund.

Haworth based that on her experience as a member of the Clark County desert tortoise committee.

"When federal land managers asked for money, we just handed over $10,000 and then we found out they weren't doing what they proposed," Haworth said.

Nye County Commissioner Butch Borasky said he requested the Haworth plan, along with Pahrump Regional Planning Commissioner Dan Schinhofen, who said the plan was less invasive and wouldn't hold up anybody's development plans.

The plan notes there were 937 construction zoning reviews conducted by the Nye County Planning Department in 2007, the vast majority of which were for new homes. It states there are 137,672 acres of potentially suitable desert tortoise habitat in the Pahrump area, of which 99,270 acres are currently administered by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The plan will allow earth work, infrastructure development, building construction and storage of heavy equipment.

Commissioner Joni Eastley had a number of questions. Haworth said they left blank the number of desert tortoises that can be taken, that would need to be discussed with the fish and wildlife service.

Haworth felt there wasn't a requirement in the Endangered Species Act for a certified biologist to relocate a desert tortoise, but she admitted Nye County Director of Emergency Services Brent Jones hadn't been contacted about having animal control officers doing that job.

Eastley pointed out the Nye County Natural Resources Department no longer exists, so record keeping would be required by someone else.

"We would have to have a director to run this and then within that department they would keep records and do all of that. This is not set in stone, this is just a proposal to put forward to get the comments on. We can address and raise any issue you might raise and bring it back," Borasky said.

Nye County Chief Civil Deputy District Attorney Ron Kent told Eastley the plan couldn't exempt certain individuals from federal law, referring to a provision that those who already executed development agreements or had approved zoning wouldn't be bound by the acreage limit.

Eastley said representatives of the Focus Property Group, who plan to build up to 5,800 homes on 900 acres on the southeast end of Pahrump Valley, are negotiating their own habitat conservation plan.

Eastley said she thought anything disturbing over 100 acres would no longer be a low-effect habitat conservation plan and require an environmental assessment. Haworth said a low-effect, habitat conservation plan in California takes in over 1,000 acres.

"It looks at the impact to the species and what those impacts will be and for low effect the impact must be minor or negligible and with the available science indicating there is a very low density of tortoise within the Pahrump Regional Planning District," Haworth said.

Eastley had concerns over Nye County assuming responsibility for reclamation of disturbed desert tortoise habitat. She felt that should be the responsibility of the developer. Haworth said Nye County, as the permit holder, would have that responsibility.

Hafen said, "we have always said that it needs to be a reasonable plan and up to this draft there has never been a reasonable plan considering the amount of tortoises in Pahrump Valley we can document."

Eastley said she would want foot notes in the plan, making references to previous research by Entrix Consultants and county environmental compliance consultant Mary Ellen Giampaoli.

http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2008/Jun.../news/22331513.html

Letter to the Editor:

Nevada wilderness needs our protection
Lisa Plaski, Las Vegas

Tue, Jun 24, 2008 (2:01 a.m.)

The Nevada Wilderness Project has been working diligently to protect Southern Nevada’s Gold Butte area. This scenic recreational area just outside Mesquite is home to our endangered desert tortoise and ancient petroglyphs.

Members of the Wilderness Project have been working hard to designate Gold Butte as a National Conservation Area, which will help protect it from further damage. The area is currently prone to vandalism, illegal off-roading and theft.

Protecting the natural beauty of Nevada will ensure that recreational areas such as Red Rock Canyon will be protected for generations to come. Let’s work together to maintain the integrity of our state.

Thank you, Nevada Wilderness Project, for the work you are doing.

Friends of Red Rock Canyon needs you


Oct 15, 2008
 
 

The Friends of Red Rock Canyon works to support the efforts of the Bureau of Land Mangement in protecting the conservation area near Las Vegas.

They are looking for some steady volunteers in a number of areas. These include working at the information desk in the Visitor Center, helping with campground upkeep or doing trail maintenance and trash removal throughout RRC, teaching teachers about the Mojave Desert, and working in the tortoise habitat at the VC. And more, of course.

Find out what is available at their website.

 http://www.friendsofredrockcanyon.org

COMMON GROUND

Gold Butte lures off-roaders, historians, conservationists

By KEITH ROGERS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Roy and Betsy Miller cringed at the sight of fresh vehicle ruts that left a zig-zag scar on what had been a picturesque Mojave Desert hill off a dirt road that leads to the historic mining town of Gold Butte.

"This area was pristine and untouched as it had been for thousands of years," Roy Miller said on a back-roads trip this month, recalling how only a few days before there were no ruts on the hill.

"On the other side there are motorcycle tracks that go up and down," he said. "There are dozens and dozens of examples like that out here."

That's why the Millers, who are members of Friends of Gold Butte, and other Nevada wilderness advocates want the Bureau of Land Management to consider protecting the remote area, south of Mesquite and 65 miles northeast of Las Vegas, through an arrangement that couples wild lands with a national conservation area.

BLM officials also have been trying to get a local rancher to remove cattle and equipment from a grazing allotment that was canceled in 1994 to protect habitat for the threatened desert tortoise and other sensitive species.

If the wilderness advocates' campaign is successful, Southern Nevada then would have a third national conservation area in addition to Red Rock Canyon and Sloan Canyon, on the western and southern rims of the Las Vegas Valley.

Their visit was timed with the release of a report by the Campaign for America's Wilderness. The report lists Gold Butte as one of 10 "treasures in trouble" that are at risk of losing their wild nature because of increased population pressure from urban areas in the various regions.

"A national conservation area with wilderness would help to protect some of the wild areas while also designating other areas for recreation where it is appropriate to take vehicles," said Reno resident Carrie Sandstedt, the campaign's national field director.

Since the Millers moved to Mesquite from Ohio in 2001, they have seen Gold Butte's critical environmental areas steadily degrade through reckless off-road vehicle and dirt bike use. They feel that off-roaders who don't stray from established roads and trails can coexist with others who want to hike through the area and enjoy its natural, cultural and historical resources.

"Why can't they designate areas for off-roading?" Betsy Miller asked. "We were told it's because it's designated as an ACEC," an area of critical environmental concern.

Off-roading is prohibited in these sensitive areas where rare plants and desert tortoises live. The terrain in many places is scarred by off-roaders who use it regardless of the prohibition and despite some 30 volunteers who monitor Gold Butte as site stewards for the BLM.

Signs that mark the protected areas have been yanked down, and BLM officials say they can afford only one ranger to patrol Gold Butte.

The bureau's Las Vegas field office has little funding to constantly clean up and repair damaged areas.

Nevertheless, the BLM has completed an inventory of ancient rock art and other American Indian cultural resources. This year, the bureau will issue a contract to document Gold Butte's wildlife and botanical habitats.

The BLM has proposed keeping 480 miles of roads open in the Gold Butte complex and closing 70 miles.

Nancy Hall, Gold Butte coordinator for the Nevada Wilderness Project, believes a 32,000-acre swath known as Mud Hills, for example, could be designated wilderness "and you wouldn't have to close a road. I don't think there's any argument not to designate it wilderness."

The Millers joined Hall in exploring Gold Butte's scenic and historic sites and to discuss their hope for protecting them.

"If we don't get protection for this place, it won't be there for your grandchildren and your great grandchildren," Roy Miller said.

Said his wife: "It makes us sad to see what's happening. It's almost like losing a friend.

"We know it can't stay pristine forever but it needs management. We understand there are people who are anti-government."

Among those who object to the federal government's management of the public land is longtime rancher Cliven Bundy.

For 14 years, he has bucked the BLM's authority and continued grazing cows in the area. His grazing lease for the Bunkerville allotment was canceled in 1994.

Bundy, 62, said at the time he didn't think the bureau is the proper landlord of public lands in Nevada. His family has run cattle on the range since 1877.

Reached on Thursday, Bundy said his position hasn't changed.

"My pre-emptive rights have stood strong for over 14 years since I fired the BLM from managing my ranch," he said.

Despite his resistance to removing the cattle, the BLM notified him on April 2 that his range improvement permit is canceled and he has 180 days to remove wire, fence posts and other debris. Creating a national conservation area, as envisioned by wilderness advocates, would continue to prohibit cattle grazing.

On April 16, about a half dozen cows were seen in an area burned by a lightning-caused wildfire in 2005 that the BLM is trying to rehabilitate.

Last fall, dozens of cattle roamed the same area where some responsible off-roaders, the Southern Nevada Land Cruisers, were asked to pay nearly $5,500 to hold a camp-out and rally, 60 times more than they had paid for past events in which they stayed on roads and used their trucks to haul out trash left by others. Instead of paying, they canceled the event.

Much of the increased cost was for paying the BLM to process the permit and monitor the group's activities in Gold Butte's sensitive riparian areas, some of the same areas where Bundy's cows have roamed while the BLM spent more than a decade to reverse the impacts of grazing.

But cattle have played a role in Gold Butte's mining history dating to the 1730s when Spanish explorers camped in the area, according to Gold Butte historian John Lear.

Evidence of their presence has been found in the form of two 20-foot-diameter rock slabs, called "arrastras," that were used for crushing gold and silver ore. Horses or mules would walk around the slabs dragging stones to pulverize the ore. The resulting fine-grain mud was then processed into gold or silver bars.

Mormon settlers came to the area in the mid-1800s, followed by prospectors who established the Gold Butte mining town in the early 1900s. The town of about 1,500 people had a post office in 1907, but the lack of quality in ore diminished, as did the town's population in 1910.

Lear said copper from the Tramp Mine and the Grand Gulch Mine in Arizona kept the Gold Butte area busy. As many as 100 hundred ore wagons at a time pulled by oxen and mules passed through the area from 1915 to 1917 to deliver copper to a rail spur at St. Thomas for use in World War I.

Two miners are buried at the old town site, Art Coleman and Bill Garrett, who lived at Gold Butte from the early 1900s until their respective deaths in 1958 and 1960. Garrett was the nephew of Pat Garrett, the sheriff who killed Billy the Kid at Fort Sumner, N.M., in 1881.

Lear said he doubts Gold Butte will become a national conservation area because of the effort involved and the potential opposition from off-road vehicle enthusiasts.

"There's no chance. I wish good luck to them. They have the best intention," he said Friday about wilderness advocates. "I understand both people's position. They want everybody on one road, and it ain't going to happen."

From an off-roader's perspective, what the wilderness advocates define as a road or vehicle trail is different than what many off-road enthusiasts think they are.

Ken Freeman, past president of Southern Nevada Off-Road Enthusiasts, said in the eyes of wilderness advocates and environmentalists, these roads and trails are mechanically groomed, or graded. "Ninety percent of the trails in Nevada aren't mechanically groomed."

Turning some of these critical areas of environmental concern into wilderness would also eliminate them from the realm of places where solar and wind energy could be developed, Freeman noted.

As it is now, the protections for the areas is "one notch below wilderness," with seasonal limits on when off-road travel is allowed.

Freeman acknowledged that there might be "a few bad apples" in the off-roading crowd who have no regard for signs or laws that protect these areas from damage and continue to scar the terrain, but he said that's going to continue to happen if the land is designated wilderness.

"The majority of the users are concerned with the environment," he said Thursday. "We need to give these people a place to recreate."

What Nevada needs, he said, is a licensing program such as other states have for off-roaders to educate them about the importance of preventing terrain damage and preserving resources.

Hall said although that would be a step in the right direction, Gold Butte is a special place that needs better management in the form of a conservation area adjacent to wild lands.

"The area has resources, natural, cultural and historical, in proportion of a national park, and there's no protection, no management. It needs to be done now. The BLM has been working on it for 10 years and there's still not anything on the ground.

"If we had a national conservation area with wilderness, we could balance the recreation and education for visitors and a place for Mesquite residents to steward and grow with like Red Rock Canyon is to Las Vegas."

Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308
  
Find this article at:
http://www.lvrj.com/news/18326464.html

Apr. 18, 2008

County may scrap desert tortoise plan
By MARK WAITE
PVT

Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley suggested the county return $225,000 in grants to prepare a desert tortoise habitat conservation plan and dump the agreement, after both sides continued arguing over the latest revision Wednesday.

If Nye County decided not to sign a blanket agreement allowing development on up to 120 acres of desert tortoise habitat around the perimeter of Pahrump, developers would build at their own risk.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could enforce its own rules.

The service hasn't filed such action in Pahrump since the listing of the desert tortoise as endangered in 1990, but Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Jeri Krueger warned Pahrump is on the radar screen now.

"You can only run a stop sign so many times without getting caught," Krueger said later.

Nye County has spent all but about $52,000 of the grant already on drawing up the plan.

Mary Ellen Giampaoli, Nye County environmental compliance specialist, outlined changes made after the last discussions, held last week between Eastley and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Fish and Wildlife agreed to expand the area covered by the habitat conservation plan from 100 to 120 acres, Giampaoli said.

"I do believe this is the best deal we're going to get under a low-effect, habitat-conservation plan," she said.

Giampaoli said in calendar year 2007 there were 1,087 construction projects undertaken in the Pahrump Regional Planning District, 59 of which would have fallen into desert tortoise habitat zones, comprising 308 acres. The mitigation, however, would only include acreage disturbed by construction activity -- not total acreage.

Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis said, "Even if it was 30 percent (disturbance) it would probably go over the 100 acres."

Fish and Wildlife also agreed with a county suggestion to sign only a one-year habitat conservation plan. But Giampaolil said they wouldn't extend the acreage after that one-year agreement expired.

"We are really pushing the envelope anything beyond this, and they are, in my opinion, on weak ground trying to make that demonstration that there would be no impact," Giampaoli said.

County commissioners attempted to call the bluff of the Fish and Wildlife Service on whether they would crack down on development if the county didn't execute an agreement.

"It could proceed but it would be at risk of enforcement action from the Fish and Wildlife Service if there's any pressure from an interest group," Giampaoli said.

Hollis said environmentalists "are good people" but added, "They don't want any commercial development. They don't want us to even live in Nevada."

"We have to discuss some type of habitat conservation plan for Pahrump Valley in order for development to proceed uninhibited," Eastley said. But she said if commissioners wanted to "let the chips fall where they may," they could decide not to proceed with an agreement.

"This is already a federal law on the books, and we have known for how many years now we have to draft a habitat conservation plan. And we accepted $225,000 from the federal government to produce that plan," Eastley said.

At one point, Hollis said he'd go to Sacramento, Calif., himself to protest to the regional headquarters of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Giampaoli said a suggestion by Commissioner Butch Borasky to swap the habitat zones on the perimeter of Pahrump Valley for other areas was rejected. Giampaoli said it would be difficult to implement; Fish and Wildlife Service policies are "pretty broad-brushed."

Nye County Manager Ron Williams said the county would be responsible for enforcement if it passed an ordinance adopting the plan. If someone built on their own without the plan, the county wouldn't be responsible for enforcement, he explained.

"Some of the larger developers within the regional planning district have approached the service about acquiring their own permit," Giampaoli said. "I think that's good news."

But developer Tim Hafen blasted the plan, saying, "Nye County is being bamboozled an awful lot by Fish and Wildlife."

Hafen worked out a development agreement with Nye County to build 448 lots on 120 acres for his Indian Roads subdivision at 5400 E. Turner Blvd., in a high-impact desert tortoise zone where he would pay $550 per acre. Across Hafen Ranch Road from the subdivision there's no mitigation fees required as its considered out of desert tortoise habitat.

"It is neither fair nor right," Hafen said.

He called the 120-acre limitation an arbitrary figure drawn up by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"It doesn't have to be 100 acres, it could be 2,000 acres," he said. "You must allow larger developments to build and not come under the 100-acre limitation.

Eastley said it has to be 100 or 120 acres or less to be considered a low-effect plan on desert tortoise habitat.

Hafen then remarked it would be useless to have another workshop.

"Don't create a moratorium on residential and commercial growth, and that's exactly what this plan as written would do," he said.

  
Find this article at:
http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2008/Apr.../news/21003893.html

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