#desert tortoise

[shirecorn]

God of Rest

[vintagewildlife]

Desert tortoises By: Unknown photographer From: Walt Disney's Wildlife of the West 1954

[daily-turtles]

Today’s turtle is the Sonoran Desert Tortoise!

[hope-for-the-planet]

$375M in public land sales to fund 36 recreation and restoration projects in Nevada and California • Nevada Current

Federal funding generated from the sale of public land in Nevada will be used to finance 36 projects aimed at enhancing recreation and resto

From the article:

"This program supports jobs and local economies, improves recreation in rural and underserved areas, and aligns with our commitment to conserve at least 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030 under the America the Beautiful initiative,” said Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis. [...] A portion of that $235 million will be used to acquire about 19 acres of private land on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada Carson Range within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Area. The purchase is expected to help protect sensitive species, such as California spotted owl, flammulated owl, and northern goshawk, while expanding recreation access to public lands. 

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Desert Tortoise

Shakeel Sha / Getty Images

[trashmackslair]

BEHOLD NEW ANIMAL FORT

[rjzimmerman]

Judge orders feds to close Western Mojave trails for off-road vehicles in desert tortoise habitat

The judge issued an injunction at the request of environmental advocates who had prevailed two years ago on the merits of their lawsuit agai

In this April 4, 2008 file photo, Marines wait for a desert tortoise to move off the road at the U.S. Marine Corps' Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

Excerpt from this story from Courthouse News:

A federal judge ordered the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to close routes for off-road vehicles in the Western Mojave Desert in California that go through critical habitat of the threatened desert tortoise and the endangered Lake Mountain milkvetch.

Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco partly vacated the network of routes for off-road vehicles the bureau had adopted in 2019 and ordered the trails impacting critical habitat of the two species remain closed until the bureau reworks its plans in compliance with the law.

The decision the judge, a Bill Clinton appointee, issued Friday follows 2024 ruling in which she agreed with a group of environmental advocacy organizations that the bureau had failed to meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, among other statutes, in designating the off-road vehicle trails in the Western Mojave.

“Studies in the administrative record show that closing areas to [off-highway vehicles] is beneficial to the desert tortoise, and the agencies have long recognized that [off-highway vehicles] cause numerous negative impacts on the protected animal,” the judge said.

She noted that even if the trails in the desert tortoise’s critical habitat are closed, that would still leave 63% of the off-road vehicle routes in the Western Mojave available and a total 271,661 acres of “open areas” would remain accessible to off-road vehicles.

[asterophoria]

Mixed media desert tortoise!

So so proud of this!