USFWS Agrees to Reverse Course, Reconsider Sonoran Desert Tortoise for ESA Protection

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, major land owners of habitat for Sonoran Desert Tortoise include the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Department of Defense, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona State Land Department, Tribal and private lands. Photo by Roy Averill Murray, USFWS.

Here’s a press release from the groups involved. Here’s some more general information from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

According to USFWS: “The most significant risk factors for Sonoran desert tortoises are: 1) altered plant communities, primarily due to the invasion of nonnative grasses; 2) altered fire regimes, also related to the changes in plant communities; 3) habitat conversion of native vegetation to developed landscapes; 4) habitat fragmentation by the construction of permanent linear structures like highways and canals; 5) human-tortoise interactions such as handling, collecting, and killing individual tortoises intentionally or unintentionally (especially by vehicle strikes); and 6) climate change as it relates to increases in the frequency, scope, and duration of drought.”

Seems to me that livestock grazing on federal public lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in Arizona play a significant role in numbers 1 and 2.

TUCSON––Conservationists have brokered an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (the Service) to go back and reconsider its 2015 decision not to protect the Sonoran Desert tortoise under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The agreement—approved by a federal court today in Tucson, Arizona—was reached after WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project challenged the Service’s 2015 decision not to list, which they alleged was arbitrary, in conflict with the ESA, and not in accordance with the best science.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service should be applauded for doing the right thing here,” said Matthew Bishop, an attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center representing the groups. “The 2015 decision merely assumed tortoises were doing fine in the absence of any population data. This was not legally or biologically defensible.”

As per the agreement, the Service must now go back and take a new look at the imperiled animal’s status in Arizona. As part of this new evaluation, the Service will also request additional information from the public and biologists, and then issue a new decision in 18 months. During this time, the Sonoran Desert tortoise’s “candidate species” status will be restored, thereby elevating its protection while a new decision is pending.

“In the midst of an extinction crisis, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a responsibility to step up and protect our country’s biodiversity,” said Taylor Jones, endangered species advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “It is more important than ever for the Service to protect habitats and species based on the best available science.”

The habitat of Sonoran Desert tortoise is threatened by invasive species, livestock grazing, increase fire risk, housing developments, off-road vehicles, habitat fragmentation, and increased predation facilitated by human activities. Residential development of tortoise habitat has created artificial barriers to the species’ movement and its natural genetic mixing. Continuous overgrazing in the desert has depleted the vegetation on which the species depends. Cattle are also known to trample and crush tortoises in their burrows.

“Desert tortoise are known for moving slowly, but without full federal protections, they have been racing toward extinction,” said Cyndi Tuell, Arizona and New Mexico director with Western Watersheds Project. “The agency will now have to reconsider its decision based on the best scientific data available rather than caving to political pressure and economic interests in Arizona.”

The Arizona Game and Fish Department hasn’t funded any monitoring studies of the species since 2015 and, as of 2019, the Arizona State Land Department has prohibited any scientific studies on state trust lands. The current population of the tortoise is therefore largely unknown, but it is likely on the same downward trend detected in 2015 due to accelerating climate stressors and increasing residential and commercial development.

The Service now has 18 months to make a new determination about the status of the species and will be accepting public comment and additional information on any proposed decisions.

7 thoughts on “USFWS Agrees to Reverse Course, Reconsider Sonoran Desert Tortoise for ESA Protection”

    • Interesting..1) FWS says…

      REASONS FOR DECLINE/VULNERABILITY: The most significant risk factors for Sonoran desert tortoises are: 1) altered plant communities, primarily due to the invasion of nonnative grasses; 2) altered fire regimes, also related to the changes in plant communities; 3) habitat conversion of native vegetation to developed landscapes; 4) habitat fragmentation by the construction of permanent linear structures like highways and canals; 5) human-tortoise interactions such as handling, collecting, and killing individual tortoises intentionally or unintentionally (especially by vehicle strikes); and 6) climate change as it relates to increases in the frequency, scope, and duration of drought.

      whereas WEG press release says..

      “The habitat of Sonoran Desert tortoise is threatened by invasive species, livestock grazing, increase fire risk, housing developments, off-road vehicles, habitat fragmentation, and increased predation facilitated by human activities. Residential development of tortoise habitat has created artificial barriers to the species’ movement and its natural genetic mixing. Continuous overgrazing in the desert has depleted the vegetation on which the species depends. Cattle are also known to trample and crush tortoises in their burrows.”

      So.. cattle grazing has been going on for a long time (150 years?) and you’t think that perhaps overgrazing was worse in the past, say before BLM existed…. and there are indeed invasive species that change fire risk. As we’ve covered before here, both grazing to reduce those fuels, and development of fuel breaks are ways of reducing the areas burnt. It sounds like the current problem is a lot more people in their habitat due to development, which occurs on private lands. Of course, there are also roads, canals, transmission lines, solar arrays and so on that will also impact habitat.

      OHVs have also come on the scene more recently but the FWS doesn’t mention them in their list.

      2. Are you (Ron and Matthew) talking about this paragraph?

      LAND MANAGEMENT/OWNERSHIP: Major land owners include the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Department of Defense, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and
      Wildlife Service, Arizona State Land Department, Tribal and private lands.

      What they are saying is that the lands involved include Federal, State, Tribal and private. I didn’t really see the problem with clarity but technically “land owners include private lands” doesn’t really make sense.

      3. Interesting that the USFWS decided not to list in 2015, and is doing this now..litigation appears to override decisions made by D administrations as well as R. FWIW, I’m not so fond of governing by oligarchy.

      Reply
      • Information from the 2014 candidate assessment.
        https://ecos.fws.gov/docs/candidate/assessments/2014/r2/C07G_V01.pdf

        “Because of the generalized differences in habitat usage by livestock (flats, ridge tops, and drainage bottoms) and Sonoran desert tortoises (steep slopes and rocky bajadas), ecological and dietary overlap is uncommon, but does occur to some degree (AGFD
        2010a, p. 6). Where such overlap is significant, in particular in periods of drought, the effect of livestock use on Sonoran desert tortoise habitat may be considerable (AGFD 2010a, p. 7).” Interestingly, it also looks like grazing was the cause of the fuels because ranchers planted non-native buffelgrass for cows to eat and then burned it regularly. “Approximately 46 livestock grazing allotments on the Tonto National Forest partially or wholly overlap the potential range of the Sonoran desert tortoise, with several rated as having impaired or unsatisfactory soil conditions (AIDTT 2000, p. 37).”

        “The Forest Service stated that the number of off-highway vehicle users has climbed sevenfold in the past 28 years, from approximately 5 million in 1972 to 36 million in 2000 (USFS 2009, p. 2). The Tonto National Forest, which encompasses a considerable
        amount of Sonoran desert tortoise habitat, receives the highest off-highway vehicle use of any national forest nationwide… In addition, the Tonto National Forest has proposed the designation of five more off-highway vehicle areas (representing 2,799 ac (1,132 ha) collectively, or 0.01 percent of its habitat in Arizona) within Sonoran desert tortoise habitat on the Mesa and Globe Ranger Districts (USFS 2009, p. 3)…. Because of the increase in off-highway vehicle access and subsequent use anticipated to occur on the Tonto National Forest, associated threats to the Sonoran desert tortoise and its habitat on the Forest are expected to increase in scope and magnitude in the immediate future.”

        Unlike the California spotted owl, where forest plan regulatory mechanisms helped prevent listing, national forest management of tortoise habitat appears to be contributing to the need to list the species: “The USFS has developed a system of adaptive management for livestock grazing on their lands, using resource monitoring to indicate when changes in land conditions occur or prescribed use levels are unsustainable, preventing excessive harm to sensitive Sonoran desert tortoise
        habitat. However, we are not aware of specific actions the USFS is taking with respect to management of invasive, nonnative plant species and subsequent wildfire concerns, vandalism of tortoises, feral dog predation, or efforts to counter anticipated climate change. In addition, and as discussed below, USFS management of off-highway vehicle on their lands is not protective of Sonoran desert tortoise populations. Therefore, we conclude that USFS management of the Sonoran desert tortoise and its habitat is currently inadequate.” (And reliance on discretionary adaptive management for grazing, rather than forest plan regulatory mechanisms is a weak position.)

        (I don’t understand why the FWS, who makes this governing decision, is being referred to as an “oligarchy.”)

        Reply
      • “The most significant risk factors for Sonoran desert tortoises are: 1) altered plant communities,”

        Heh – and the picture shows one eating an introduced plant.

        Reply

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