Western Watersheds Project (WWP) has announced their intent to sue the feds for not protecting the Mojave desert tortoise in southern Nevada, claiming Cliven Bundy’s cattle are partly to blame for the tortoise’s diminished habitat, along with solar panel development.
The WWP issued an intent to sue on Dec.1, giving several federal agencies 60 days to respond before the group will launch a formal lawsuit. The environmental group claims the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service and Desert Conservation Program failed to comply with and implement the terms of the biological opinion, violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
In the notice, the group alleges the government agencies failed to follow the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan and its corresponding incidental take permit and implementing agreement. The notice requires the agencies to reinitiate consultation on the plan to consider new information about impacts to the desert tortoise, especially “rampant solar development on federal lands and the species’ dramatically declining population.”
The group noted the plan allows for the development of private lands in Clark County but requires the county to implement conservation measures for the desert tortoise, which includes buying out grazing privileges on federal lands.
“Although the County secured the allotment privileges and (BLM) closed the allotments administratively, BLM has allowed trespass grazing to continue unchecked on the Gold Butte allotment lands in desert tortoise critical habitat that is required to be protected as a term of the (plan),” the notice read, referring to Bundy’s cattle, which the group alleges have been grazing on the allotment for decades.
“For almost thirty years, Cliven Bundy has grazed his cattle on public lands without a grazing permit and without paying rent,” said Erik Molvar, WWP executive director, in a news release. “These cattle have disturbed the native desert ecosystems and promoted the expansion of flammable annual weed called red brome, resulting in major fires that burned more than 80,000 acres of desert tortoise habitat in 2005 alone. It’s time to evict the cattle.”
Declining numbers
WWP asserts that the populations of desert tortoises are plummeting. The group contends that solar projects have largely led to the decline, using the example of two recent utility-scale solar projects under construction in the Mojave Desert of California. Tortoises were removed from the solar project sites and moved elsewhere.
According to the group, during clearance surveys on 8,000 acres, no juvenile tortoises were found under roughly 7 inches in shell length. In another area of 5,000 acres, the smallest tortoise found measured about 9 inches in shell length, which is an estimated age of at least 35 years old.
“This indicates a lack of survivorship and no recruitment into adulthood of the tortoise population in this region,” the notice read. “Habitat destruction from large-scale solar projects was indicated as a major cause, including indirect effects of project development extending outwards on adjacent tortoise habitat.”
The notice concludes by noting the Northeastern Mojave Recovery Unit is the exception to desert tortoise’s decline and suggests this is a result of most livestock grazing being removed from the critical habitat area. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
