The Western Watersheds Project recently sued the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service for not protecting the Mojave desert tortoise and 77 other species.
“Between the impacts of Cliven Bundy’s thirty years of trespass livestock grazing in Gold Butte National Monument and the conversion of ungrazed desert habitats to solar farms, the desert tortoise and other species are getting cheated out of their side of the Habitat Conservation Plan bargain,” said Erik Molvar, executive director of Western Watersheds Project.
“These species were supposed to be getting increased protection on public lands in Clark County in exchange for having their habitat on private lands permanently destroyed, but the federal agencies have failed to deliver.”
The Habitat Conservation Plan was created to offset the development of nearly 170,000 acres outside of Las Vegas, NV, the group said.
