Army to move forward with tortoise relocation

By DAVID DANELSKI
The Press-Enterprise

The U.S. Army has told the U.S. Bureau of Land Management it plans to move 90 imperiled tortoises from Fort Irwin next month, despite the bureau's position that it will not participate in the effort because of uncertainty over how many of the reptiles will survive.

John Wagstaffe, a Fort Irwin spokesman, said the Army will relocate the desert tortoises after it gets an OK from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Army wants the tortoises cleared from 24,000 acres to make way for expanded training with tanks and other military vehicles.

Desert tortoises are threatened with extinction, and questions remain about whether moving them makes them more vulnerable to coyote attacks.

The Army suspended a tortoise relocation effort from the same area last fall after about 90 of 556 tortoises moved in spring 2008 died, most of them killed by coyotes.

The BLM participated in the previous relocation, because many of the animals were moved to public land managed by the agency.

One environmental group vowed Friday to take legal action, if necessary, to make sure tortoises are not moved this fall.

The Army is awaiting a determination from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on whether the military can go ahead with is plan to move the reptiles to Army-owned land south of Fort Irwin.

Ray Bransfield, a Ventura-based biologist with the wildlife agency, said Friday that he will consult with wildlife scientists from the BLM and the U.S. Geological Survey who are familiar with tortoise relocations before making a decision by the beginning of October.

A BLM biologist who had been meeting with the Army about the relocation plan said Friday that his agency has decided not to proceed because of uncertainty about the tortoises' safety.

"They have apparently decided they can move the tortoises on their own," said Chris Otahal, who is based in Barstow. "We (the BLM) are not involved. This is strictly an Army action."

Earlier in the summer, the BLM announced plans to move tortoises this fall and next spring from Fort Irwin expansion areas to public land between the training base and Interstate 15.

At the same time, the agency issued an environmental analysis that relied on research by a USGS ecologist that found coyotes were killing and eating tortoises in greater numbers throughout the California and Nevada deserts, most likely because of a prey shortage brought on by years of drought.

The ecologist's work supported the government's conclusion that deaths among the tortoises from Fort Irwin were unrelated to the relocations.

But the ecologist, Henderson, Nev.-based Todd Esque, asked the BLM last month not to use his research until he was able to further analyze his observations, Otahal said.

The BLM decided last week to re-do its environmental analysis, Otahal said. The new work isn't expected to be ready until late October or early November. The tortoises begin hibernating underground in November.

Otahal said he met Tuesday with Army officials, who told him they still plan to move the 89 tortoises from the 24,000-acre training area starting Oct. 1. By moving the reptiles to Army-owned land, the military will not need the BLM's cooperation or approval.

Army officials told Otahal they can move forward under the authority of an earlier environmental analysis of the overall plan to relocate tortoises from areas where Fort Irwin was expanding.

Ileene Anderson, a biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity, said her organization will try to the stop a fall relocation, even if it means going to court.

"The Army appears willing to sacrifice another 89 tortoises, using the old translocation plan that has shown itself to be fatally flawed," said Anderson, who is bases in Los Angeles.

She said she's also concerned about moving the animals in the fall, because little food is available for them at a time when they would need energy to find or dig new burrows.

Earlier this year, Anderson disputed government claims that relocated tortoises are no more vulnerable to coyotes than any other tortoises. She said the relocated tortoises were easy targets for coyotes.

Tortoises have natural homing instincts, and many tried to head back to the military property after they were moved, Anderson said.

Roy C. Averill-Murray, desert tortoise recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Friday that Esque and other researchers have found that resident tortoises near Fort Irwin were just as likely to be eaten by coyotes as relocated tortoises.

Regardless of what the Army does next month, the BLM will prepare an environmental analysis on the military's next step: moving 1,100 tortoises from a 70,000-acre expansion area on the west side of the base.

Army seeks to move more than 1,100 desert tortoises

Desert tortoise. (Rachel Wilson)

Julie Cart
Los Angeles Times

As it prepares to expand training operations at Ft. Irwin in the Mojave Desert, the U.S. Army is again proposing to move more than 1,100 threatened California desert tortoises -- an unprecedented number of an endangered species that has not fared well during previous relocations.

The Army is seeking the approval of the federal Bureau of Land Management to move the tortoises from nearly 100,000 acres in portions of the National Training Center to lands managed by the BLM. The environmental assessment is under BLM review and the proposed action is open for a 15-day public comment period.

Moving desert tortoises is not always successful. The Army relocated more than 600 of the animals last year but suspended the $8.7-million program after the first phase when officials noted high mortality rates among the tortoises, chiefly because of coyotes.

About 90 animals were found dead from suspected coyote predation. But Clarence Everly, natural and cultural resources program manager at Ft. Irwin, said only one animal died during the relocation.

The sheer numbers of tortoises proposed to be moved in this latest operation, beginning next spring through 2012, alarms conservationists.

"Nothing's ever been done on this scale before," said Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, who says a total of 252 tortoises have died in the translocation area. "Every time the animals recognize that they don’t know where they are, they have some built-in mechanism that tells them to head for home and they make a break for home."

In the last move, some tortoises traveled up to five or six miles to get back to their home range, Anderson said.

The relocation of desert tortoises from Ft. Irwin, northeast of Barstow, to the drought-ravaged western Mojave puts more pressure on the species, whose population is already crashing, in part because of an upper respiratory disease that afflicts some animals. Everly said the Army is blood testing every tortoise and will quarantine any found to have the disease.

Conservationists restore East Mojave guzzlers

Guzzler #S-18 near Goffs, California. (Chris Ervin)

by Leslie Ervin
Exclusive Field Report

Goffs, CA -- The Goffs Cultural Center provided camping facilities for an important work group during the weekend of March 27-29. Cliff McDonald of Needles, California, and XX of his volunteers staged their operations at Goffs while they made day trips to repair five wildlife water guzzlers in the area.

What is a wildlife water guzzler, you ask? Guzzlers come in many shapes and sizes and are made of different materials depending on the wildlife population they are intended to serve. The ones in this area consist of a concrete slab that collects rainwater and funnels it into an underground tank. The tank is covered and has a sloped opening that allows animals and other creatures to walk in and out to reach the water. Guzzlers are vital to desert wildlife like deer, bobcat, coyote, cougar, quail, bighorn sheep, and desert tortoise.

Most of the local guzzlers were built decades ago and over time they develop cracks and collect debris, which makes them less effective. Cliff’s volunteers come prepared with trucks full of equipment to make the appropriate repairs. The work first involves prepping the pad. Chippers are used to clean off the old sealant and then QUIKRETE concrete bonding adhesive is applied to the cracks. Two coats of Merlex are then applied over 24 hours to seal the pad so the water runs down into the underground water tank. The tank is also cleaned out and tortoise nets are installed so the tortoises can get out of the tank.

On Saturday, my husband Chris and I were interested in witnessing this work firsthand, so we took a break from our weeding at Goffs and drove to the closest worksite, just two miles up Mountain Springs Road. When we arrived at guzzler #S-18, they had already fixed the cracks in the pad and were cleaning out the tank. Since this guzzler happened to be in a particularly lush area of spring flowers, we wandered around a bit to take photos. When we returned, they had finished sealing the pad and were moving on to the next work site. You can see how nice the guzzlers look when they finish.

Finished guzzler #S-18. (Leslie Ervin)

The group assembled at Goffs consisted of volunteers from the High Desert Chapter #759 of Quail Unlimited, the California Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, and…. On Saturday and Sunday they divided into work groups and headed out to the guzzlers. They even brought along a cooking crew who whipped up such delicacies as eggs and elk sausage and elk burgers. Those of us fortunate enough to be at Goffs during that time enjoyed exchanging sleepy pre-dawn greetings and friendly waves as their caravans rolled back into camp at the end of the day.

Cliff has been the driving force behind restoration of water sources inside the Mojave National Preserve and surrounding areas. He coordinates with groups like Quail Unlimited, the Safari Club, the Bureau of Land Management, and California Fish and Game to accomplish this important work. He was recently honored with a $5,000 grant as one of three finalists in the 2009 Budweiser Conservationist of the Year Award sponsored by Budweiser and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).

If you are interested in helping this worthy cause by volunteering or making a donation, you can contact Cliff at 760-326-2935.

Public input sought on relocating desert tortoises for military training center project

An analysis says coyotes caused most of the deaths of desert tortoises during a relocation effort. Frank Bellino / The Press-Enterprise

By DAVID DANELSKI
The Press-Enterprise

The federal government is asking for the public's help in deciding how best to relocate desert tortoises to make way for expansion of Fort Irwin Army training center near Barstow.

The effort to move the tortoises to new territory was suspended last fall when at least 90 of the 556 tortoises died after they were relocated. Most of those were killed by coyotes. Of those that survived, some returned to their home range on military property.

Now the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Fort Irwin National Training Center have announced a "scoping period" ending Feb. 18 to hear the public's suggestions on what issues should be addressed before tortoises are again moved from Fort Irwin expansion areas.

A new relocation plan is expected to be done by spring, an ideal time to relocate tortoises, according to a BLM news release.

A recent analysis by Nevada-based biologists for the U.S. Geological Survey found that coyotes were killing tortoises at several locations in California and Nevada because drought had left little other prey available, said Roy C. Averill-Murray, desert tortoise recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The tortoise deaths last year near Fort Irwin "absolutely had nothing to do with the relocation," Averill-Murray said in a telephone interview from his office in Reno.

The U.S. Geological Survey analysis of tortoise deaths is expected to be presented at a symposium in Nevada later this month. The researchers who did the study could not be reached Thursday.

Ileene Anderson, a Los Angeles-based biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental organization, said she wants to learn more about the U.S. Geological Survey analysis but added that relocated tortoises were easy targets for coyotes.

Tortoises have natural homing instincts, she said, and many tried to head back to the military property after they were moved. As they traveled, the tortoises had no burrows in which to find refuge from coyotes, she said.

Another concern is disease. The Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors, another environmental group, sued the BLM and the Army last year, saying relocated tortoises were exposed to diseased animals and placed in inferior habitat.

Nearly 2,000 tortoises have been targeted for removal from land that Fort Irwin is taking over for military exercises. The species is listed as threatened with extinction.

An environmental analysis, expected to be published early next month, is being developed by the U.S. Geological Survey with input from the California Department of Fish and Game, BLM, U.S. Army and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Moving Tortoises

What: Public comments and suggestions are being sought on plans to relocate desert tortoises from military property to public land in the desert.

How: Send written comments to BLM Barstow Field Office, Attention: Mickey Quillman, 2601 Barstow Road, Barstow, CA 92311. Comments also can be faxed to 760-252-6099 or e-mailed to mquillma@ca.blm.gov.

Army suspends relocation of Ft. Irwin tortoises

The $8.7-million effort has stopped because coyotes have killed so many in their new desert location

By Louis Sahagun
Los Angeles Times

The Army's National Training Center at Ft. Irwin on Friday suspended its effort to move California desert tortoises off prospective combat training grounds and onto nearby public lands because the animals are being hit hard by coyotes.

The first phase of the $8.7-million translocation effort began in March, when about 670 tortoises were airlifted by helicopter out of the southern portion of the desert base northeast of Barstow to new homes in drought-stricken western Mojave Desert areas.

Since then, at least 90 translocated and resident tortoises in those areas have died, most killed and eaten by coyotes, according to federal biologists monitoring the project.

"We shut it down because of the mortality rate," said John Wagstaff, spokesman for the base.

"It will remain on hold until the Army and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determine the reasons behind it."

Biologists theorize the problem may be connected to severe drought conditions, which have 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 tortoises for sustenance.

They also point out that translocated tortoises tend to wander, sometimes for miles, making them lumbering targets for hungry predators.

Gashes and tooth marks in the shell of one translocated tortoise discovered in April by federal biologists indicated that it had been ripped out of the front of its carapace.

Other threats include vehicle traffic and an infectious respiratory disease.

The disease was prevalent in the relocation area, and now the newcomers are catching it.

In July, the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson-based environmental group, sued the Army, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, accusing them of violating the federal Endangered Species Act in their management of Gopherus agassizii.

In a prepared statement released on Friday, Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the center, said, "We predicted that the translocation of tortoises from Ft. Irwin's expansion would be disastrous and, unfortunately, we were proven right.

"This whole debacle needs to be significantly rethought," Anderson said.

"The loss of so many tortoises is certainly not helping this threatened population."

The 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 to unoccupied public lands.

"The Army cares very much about these tortoises," Wagstaff said.

"That's why we've devoted a lot of money and research to them over the past 20 years."

Fort Irwin suspends tortoise translocation

By Abby Sewell
Desert Dispatch

FORT IRWIN • Fort Irwin will not be moving desert tortoises as planned this fall, partially in response to a lawsuit by two environmental advocacy groups.

The U.S. Army began transferring tortoises from an area slated for inclusion in a 118,674-acre expansion of the post in the spring. Since then, researchers working for the Army have been using transmitters to track 411 of the 556 tortoises moved from the southern expansion area, said Roy Averill-Murray, desert tortoise recovery coordinator with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which is working with the Army on the project.

Of the tortoises that were tracked, Averill-Murray said that 80 or 90 have died, many of them falling prey to coyotes. The wildlife service stated in its biological opinion on the moving process that no more than 136 of the translocated tortoises should die.

“We’re getting close to that number, and we still have the entire western expansion area to look at,” he said, referring to a second, larger, group of tortoises originally scheduled to be moved in the spring.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the Department of the Army in July, alleging that the agencies failed to conduct extensive enough environmental review before transferring the tortoises. Averill-Murray said that the lawsuit was largely the impetus behind suspending the translocation.

The Army had originally planned to move 40 or 50 more tortoises out of the southern expansion zone this fall, Averill-Murray said. Fort Irwin spokesman John Wagstaffe said that will be postponed for an unknown period, meaning that the post will be unable to start using the area for training exercises as planned.

It also appears unlikely that the transfer of the tortoises from the western expansion area will go forward in the spring, Averill-Murray said.

Researchers will attempt to determine an accurate tortoise population figure for the western expansion area, to assess alternative habitat areas for the tortoises, and to more fully understand how many of the deaths among moved tortoises were related to the removal of the animals from their original habitat.

Averill-Murray noted that coyote predation has risen throughout the Mojave Desert, possibly due to a drought in the region that led to a decline in populations of some of the coyotes’ other natural prey.

Center for Biological Diversity biologist Ileene Anderson counted the suspension of tortoise transfer as a victory. The Center wants to see a less-trafficked area chosen for the tortoises’ new habitat, to minimize dangers from dogs and off-road vehicles, and a higher level of protection for moved tortoises, including possibly fencing their habitat, she said.

Army suspends Fort Irwin tortoise relocation plans after deaths of 90 animals

By DAVID DANELSKI
The Press-Enterprise






The U.S. Army has suspended plans to relocate more than 1,000 desert tortoises from Fort Irwin expansion areas this fall and next spring because at least 15 percent of the tortoises moved earlier this year have died.

About 90 of the 556 tortoises moved in the spring are dead, mostly as a result of coyote attacks.

Army and federal wildlife officials said this week that a timeout is needed to determine how many of the tortoises, a threatened species, would have died anyway and how many deaths should be attributed to the relocation effort.

"We didn't foresee this amount of coyote predation," said Roy Averill-Murray, desert tortoise recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a phone interview Thursday.

Fish and Wildlife granted the permit that allows the tortoises to be moved and has the power to stop the relocation or require changes to ensure the species is not jeopardized.

Biologists tracking relocated tortoises began noticing the deaths within a few weeks after the moves started, according to weekly status reports released by the Army under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

Kristin Berry, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, was tracking 159 of the tortoises in mid-April when she noted that five had been killed by predators and one apparently had been attacked by a predator and then run over by a vehicle. A predator tore off the front leg of another, leaving its femur exposed.

The mortality rate "is extraordinarily high for a three-week period," Berry wrote in her April 15 report.

New Training on Hold

The military wants to move tortoises from 118,674 acres the Army acquired for training maneuvers with faster-moving tanks and longer-range weaponry. About 5,000 troops rotate through the National Training Center at Fort Irwin near Barstow every month.

The Army has an $8.5 million budget to move nearly 2,000 tortoises and track their movements and health for five years.

With the relocation on hold indefinitely, the military's training plans for the new territory also are on hold. No maneuvers will take place on the land until the tortoises are removed, said Fort Irwin spokesman John Wagstaffe.

Coyote attacks on tortoises typically are rare. But ongoing drought has reduced the coyote's normal prey -- cottontails, jackrabbits and small rodents -- so the predators are hunting tortoises throughout their California and Nevada habitats, Averill-Murray said.

Federal wildlife officials will analyze whether relocating the tortoises made them more likely to be eaten. The wildlife service will produce an official "biological opinion" before the relocations resume, Roy Averill-Murray said.

The Army training center is expanding into tortoise habitat to the south and west of the existing 1,100-square-mile base.

Of the total of more than 1,900 tortoises to be moved, Fish and Wildlife officials had expected no more that 136 to die.

About 75 percent of the 556 animals relocated a few miles south of their home range in March and April had radio transmitters that allowed biologists to determine what happened to them, Averill-Murray said. Of those, at least 90 have died. The fate of the 100-plus tortoises without transmitters is unknown.

Legal Challenge

Two environmental groups, the Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors, sued the Army and the Bureau of Land Management in July, contending that the move exposed healthy tortoises to diseased animals and placed them in a poorer-quality habitat.

Ileene Anderson, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, said Thursday that the relocated tortoises are more vulnerable to coyotes and other predators because, once they are dropped off, they try to return to their homes. Under normal circumstances, they would seek refuge in their burrows, she said.

"It makes them more visible on the landscape, and it makes it easier for coyotes and other predators to spot them and kill them," Anderson said.

Averill-Murray said the relocated tortoises appear to be dying at a rate similar to resident tortoises. He agreed, though, that transplanted tortoises try to return to their original homes. A few have found their way back to the future training area, despite a fence meant to keep them out.

Wagstaffe said the relocation didn't cause all the deaths.

"If a tortoise died of natural causes, it should not be counted against the relocation," he said.

But Anderson characterized the 90 deaths as "a huge hit" on the Mojave Desert tortoise population.

The animals' populations have been shrinking because of habitat loss, disease, predation, crushing by vehicles and people taking them for pets.

The federal government considers the species threatened.

Suit attacks relocation effort

Joe Nelson, Staff Writer
San Bernardino Sun

Two environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit against the Army and the Bureau of Land Management alleging that proper environmental studies were not conducted before nearly 800 desert tortoises were relocated for Fort Irwin's expansion.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors, which filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, allege the federally endangered tortoises were moved to inferior habitat that included numerous roads and pockets of diseased tortoises. They also allege that illegal off-roading and dumping occurs at the site east of the Calico Mountains and south of Coyote Lake.

"It's time to overhaul Fort Irwin's disastrous tortoise relocation program," said Ileene Anderson, a biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a news release. "Though we can't stop the fort's expansion, we can ensure that the relocation of these rare animals is done right."

The National Training Center and Fort Irwin initiated the tortoise relocation efforts in order to expand its borders to train soldiers being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress authorized the expansion in 2001, and the Army has spent more than $8.5 million on research and relocation of the tortoises.

Twenty-three tortoises were killed by coyotes in the month following their relocation, and 11 other tortoises native to the area also were killed by predators

Army spokesman John Wagstaffe said every effort has been made to make the relocation of the tortoises as successful as possible. He said two of the world's leading biologists in tortoise studies, Kristin Berry and Bill Borman, have been assisting in the relocation efforts.

But Anderson said in her news release that relocating healthy tortoises to a habitat occupied by diseased tortoises was a "recipe for disaster."

She said the relocation plan could be improved by reducing the number of tortoises being moved, making sure only healthy tortoises are moved into healthy populations and improving the habitat quality in the relocation area by making it a tortoise preserve.

Despite tortoise mortality, Wagstaffe believes the Army did its share of due diligence in the relocation process.

"We do feel, as we have felt all along, that we've done a very good job," Wagstaffe said.

Whenever diseased tortoises were located on plots during the relocation, they were removed and put in a pen at Fort Irwin for monitoring, he said.

"I'm not saying we found every diseased tortoise, but we hope that, in our survey of these plots, that we found all the diseased tortoises and removed them," Wagstaffe said. "I'm very proud of what we've done in this particular case. Nobody's perfect, but I think we've made every effort to make this translocation as successful as any translocation in the history of Southern California."

EDITORIAL: A tortoise tale

Desert critters and the Endangered Species Act



Opinion
Las Vegas Review-Journal


Native Las Vegan Harry Pappas was appointed to the Bureau of Land Management Citizen Advisory Council by then-Rep. Barbara Vucanovich. He later represented the State Rifle & Pistol Association on the Clark County Tortoise Advisory Council.

"They said the (desert) tortoise was threatened, so they had to fence off these huge areas and shut out all the cattle, which means no one is out there shooting the coyotes and the raven or trapping the lions anymore, so of course that wrecked the hunting," Mr. Pappas recalled, back in 2001. "They said anyone who found a tortoise had to turn it in" to Clark County authorities.

"So what happened? They got so overrun with tortoises being turned in that they told us they were going to have to start euthanizing them. I said, 'Hold on a minute, here. Euthanize them? Why don't you just drop them out in the desert?' They said, 'Oh no, they'll fight with the native tortoises that already live out there and they'll kill each other, because all these lands are already at saturation levels.' I said, 'Wait a minute, now: Which is it? How can they be "threatened," or "endangered" ... but now you tell us all these lands are at "saturation levels" for tortoises?' "

Cattle weren't the problem, Mr. Pappas has always insisted. In fact, cattlemen formerly reduced the populations of predators including the coyote and the raven, which benefited tortoise populations.

"But now they say the way to protect the tortoise is to fence off the land and not let the ranchers and the hunters in, when the biggest tortoise populations we ever had were in the '50s and '60s, when you had plenty of ranching, and plenty of hunting, and plenty of predator control," Mr. Pappas insists.

Needless to say, it's hard to qualify as a federal bureaucrat if you're not willing to keep repeating the same mistakes. It was also back in 2001 that Congress authorized Fort Irwin -- a prime site for desert combat training near Barstow in Southern California's western Mojave desert -- 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 finally began in March 2008.

But so far, at least 14 of the 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, many of which were fitted with radio transmitters.

Fifteen of 70 baby tortoises collected at the training center as part of the relocation program have also died of various causes, Army officials tell the Los Angeles Times.

The problem, they say, might be linked to a severe drought that killed off plants and triggered a crash in rodent populations. As a result, coyotes that normally thrive on kangaroo rats and rabbits are turning to 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 sharpshooters. The hunt, however, has been delayed by bureaucratic red tape.

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Tucson, Ariz.-based environmental group, meantime announces 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 big tortoise move.

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

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

Oh, please.

As documented in Vernon Bostic's "Ecology of the Desert Tortoise in Relation to Cattle Grazing," the greatest death loss among Southern Nevada desert tortoises during the severe drought of 1981 occurred in the Crescent Valley Allotment, where cattle had been excluded from grazing.

"On the adjoining Christmas Tree Pass Allotment, which was grazed (by cattle) all year long, the tortoises were relatively unaffected by the severe drought. ... The reason is simple: Cows provide tortoises with both food and drink," wrote Mr. Bostic.

Cattle also help the tortoises by eating off the previous year's dried growth from grasses and other desert plants, clearing the way for new growth close enough to the ground to provide turtle fodder.

The solution? Move the Fort Irwin tortoises not onto parched habitat from which they will only start their long, lumbering walk home, but rather, onto well-maintained cattle grazing lands where local ranchers have improved the springs, putting in windmills, ponds and water tanks.

Slow, steady -- and under siege

Endangered tortoises airlifted from an Army base face other threats

By Louis Sahagun
Los Angeles Times

REFUGE: A translocated California desert tortoise in the shade of a shrub.
(John Vandewege / Los Angeles Times)

Video: Desert Tortoises Under Attack

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."

Army's transfer of Mojave Desert tortoises tripped up by coyotes

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.

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."