Desert Tortoise faces threat from its own refuge
- Thread starter jmu114
- Start date
So nobody can touch them. You can't build on your own property. I we do ALLOW you to build on your own property, you have to first pay us thousands of dollars for our tortoise sanctuary, and now we are going to go ahead and kill them by the hundreds, since we didn't plan things out very well. On purpose. But don't you dare let them captive breed or try to rescue them from harm. THAT would be illegal...
All they need is a million a year to stay open? Why doesn't Bloomberg just send them some money? The dude wouldn't even miss a million a year.
All they need is a million a year to stay open? Why doesn't Bloomberg just send them some money? The dude wouldn't even miss a million a year.
This is a terrible tragedy.. for shame on the BLM.
Bloody UNACCEPTABLE.
This type of thing infuriates me to no end. They - the Fed "Civil Servants" (more like unCivil Serpents) have USED these tortoises to bilk Federal funds from the taxpayers for all these years and now that they cannot USE the tortoises, they are going to KILL THEM.
CALL FOR ACTION!!!!
CTTC and TFO People of California and Nevada WRITE your Congress person ASAP ... like NOW. This must be addressed. Our voice must be heard. Please also storm Attorney Generals offices in both states so they can file an injunction to STOP this!
All those funds over the years could have been put to much better use funding the CTTC volunteers and their programs. BLM money wasters! SHAME on YOU!
F-en Feds. I am so mad.
I am calling the Nevada Attorney General first thing in the morning.
This type of thing infuriates me to no end. They - the Fed "Civil Servants" (more like unCivil Serpents) have USED these tortoises to bilk Federal funds from the taxpayers for all these years and now that they cannot USE the tortoises, they are going to KILL THEM.
CALL FOR ACTION!!!!
CTTC and TFO People of California and Nevada WRITE your Congress person ASAP ... like NOW. This must be addressed. Our voice must be heard. Please also storm Attorney Generals offices in both states so they can file an injunction to STOP this!
All those funds over the years could have been put to much better use funding the CTTC volunteers and their programs. BLM money wasters! SHAME on YOU!
F-en Feds. I am so mad.
I am calling the Nevada Attorney General first thing in the morning.
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2012
- Messages
- 13,454
How many tortoise loving people are on this site ? Do you think we could help save the tortoise by sending them say five or six bucks a month ? Or maybe send some here to Texas I know I could care for two or three if it means saving them from the gas camber. There is to many options than just kill the animals! I hate this oh we will just have to put them down because we felled to put out more fund raising. Have a damn car wash ,charge people to come and see them .
Sent from my C771 using TortForum mobile app
Sent from my C771 using TortForum mobile app
Just popped in to post this same article. (Un)fortunately this is a family oriented site and I can't type out my true feelings.
Those of you in the Nevada area need to write/call/email your local government officials and other Americans need to express your concerns to federal officials.
Those of you in the Nevada area need to write/call/email your local government officials and other Americans need to express your concerns to federal officials.
Yet, another human intervention that once again animals pay dearly for. If they would Learn to manage money properly, which means keeping it out of their very deep pockets, they would have enough resources. Again, humans ruin everything!
- Joined
- Apr 3, 2013
- Messages
- 10,876
I want a female ADT
And they want to kill them ! I'm at a lost of words
And they want to kill them ! I'm at a lost of words
We must fight this!
I am writing letters right now. They depended on developer money? Can someone tell me how sustainable that is when real estate markets go up and down and all around. That being said, why are we waiting this long to oh gee, get funding from other sources? Are any of these Feds that are suppose to be stewards of these desert tortoises even on sites like this to keep their constituents abreast of these things? NO. Heaven forbid. Let's wait unti the last possible moment and see if an AP story works.
I am not buying this we have to kill them BS. You will not kill them. You will get them to homes or to a new preserve and that money you have you can give to the volunteer groups who have worked for nothing for years to be good stewards of the desert tortoise. What happened to the excess money they got when the market was crazy high? Stupid question. I am sure raises and pensions and golden handshakes.
Killing the tortoises is completely unacceptable. M-Fers. Yes, I am vey angry about this. Please join me in my madness and let's do something about this injustice.
I am writing letters right now. They depended on developer money? Can someone tell me how sustainable that is when real estate markets go up and down and all around. That being said, why are we waiting this long to oh gee, get funding from other sources? Are any of these Feds that are suppose to be stewards of these desert tortoises even on sites like this to keep their constituents abreast of these things? NO. Heaven forbid. Let's wait unti the last possible moment and see if an AP story works.
I am not buying this we have to kill them BS. You will not kill them. You will get them to homes or to a new preserve and that money you have you can give to the volunteer groups who have worked for nothing for years to be good stewards of the desert tortoise. What happened to the excess money they got when the market was crazy high? Stupid question. I am sure raises and pensions and golden handshakes.
Killing the tortoises is completely unacceptable. M-Fers. Yes, I am vey angry about this. Please join me in my madness and let's do something about this injustice.
- Joined
- May 30, 2013
- Messages
- 202
This is outrageous
Attorney General - Nevada > Catherine Cortez Masto
http://ag.nv.gov/About/Meet_the_Attorney_General/
Las Vegas phone if you want to call in your complaint: 702-486-3420
Information about filing a complaint ...
I consider this fraud since this agency was trusted to be stewards of these tortoises and they were given substantial funds to do so.
Now they are violating the public's trust.
http://ag.nv.gov/Complaints/BCJ_SP_Prosecution_Complaints/
To file a complaint, here is the form:
http://ag.nv.gov/Complaints/File_Complaint/
We are complaining about Desert Tortoise Conservation Center
Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Location Nevada South / Las Vegas Valley
Desert Tortoise Conservation Center
11795 S Rainbow Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89179
We are asking the Attorney General, being that the desert tortoise is the state reptile for California and Nevada, and therefore a state treasure to help the People to stop this irresponsible, immoral killing. The tortoises had nothing to do with the mismanagement of funding. An audit needs to be made. In any case, tortoises should not be killed because government staff gamed the funding system. Why is the San Diego Zoo no longer a partner with the DTCC I want to know? Killing the tortoises. Not fair. Not right. No!
http://ag.nv.gov/About/Meet_the_Attorney_General/
Las Vegas phone if you want to call in your complaint: 702-486-3420
Information about filing a complaint ...
I consider this fraud since this agency was trusted to be stewards of these tortoises and they were given substantial funds to do so.
Now they are violating the public's trust.
http://ag.nv.gov/Complaints/BCJ_SP_Prosecution_Complaints/
To file a complaint, here is the form:
http://ag.nv.gov/Complaints/File_Complaint/
We are complaining about Desert Tortoise Conservation Center
Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Location Nevada South / Las Vegas Valley
Desert Tortoise Conservation Center
11795 S Rainbow Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89179
We are asking the Attorney General, being that the desert tortoise is the state reptile for California and Nevada, and therefore a state treasure to help the People to stop this irresponsible, immoral killing. The tortoises had nothing to do with the mismanagement of funding. An audit needs to be made. In any case, tortoises should not be killed because government staff gamed the funding system. Why is the San Diego Zoo no longer a partner with the DTCC I want to know? Killing the tortoises. Not fair. Not right. No!
Flush with mortgage backed securities cash in 2009.
Fair weather friends .... count them, FIVE, agencies.
Five partners and we have to read that AP wire saying it was all a moot point. Appalling.
Here's their 2009 press release:
The Mojave desert tortoise is a threatened species living right here in the Mojave Desert, just a stone’s throw from the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Aside from their amazing adaptations for living in the desert, they are a keystone species that other animals depend upon for safety and protection.
Burrowed Time
While desert tortoises spend 95 percent of their lives in burrows that they dig deep in the soil, these burrows also serve to protect other species from predators and harsh weather conditions. In addition, tortoises disperse seeds from the native plants they eat, and as they digest, they repopulate the desert using the seeds from those plants, thereby providing food and shade to other desert animals when the plants grow. It is no understatement to say that without desert tortoises in the desert, we have no desert.
Sadly, wild populations of Mojave desert tortoises are estimated to have declined as much as 90 percent in the past 20 years; it is estimated that there are only about 150,000 wild Mojave desert tortoises remaining in critical habitat in the wild.
Live and Let Live
Although desert tortoises can live to be 50 to 100 years old, they have low reproductive success, so few eggs hatch each year in the wild, and of those that do, not many hatchlings survive to adulthood. With many threats to their survival, including predators, habitat destruction, disease, and the illegal pet trade, until recently, little hope remained that these animals that have been on the planet for 200 million years would persist through another century.
But today, we have a renewed hope for the success and continuation of Mojave desert tortoises.
In March 2009, the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as a member of the Conservation Centers for Species Survival (C2S2), began a partnership to operate the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC) along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW).
The DTCC is the only facility of its kind, serving as a drop-off location for unwanted pet desert tortoises and a future hub for interdisciplinary research to help save not only Mojave desert tortoises but their native habitat. We are the only authorized organization permitted to take in these animals, rehabilitate them and legally release them to the wild through a structured research program to ensure their success.
Recovery Plan
One of the biggest issues we face at the DTCC is the pet desert tortoise problem, which is fueled by the backyard breeding of pet desert tortoises. There are thousands of desert tortoises being kept as pets in the Las Vegas Valley while wild populations are suffering from diminishing numbers every year. To help address this problem, the San Diego Zoo and its partners are in the process of changing the role of the Center from that of a transfer-and-holding facility to one that will support range-wide recovery efforts for the desert tortoise through conservation research, participation in on-the-ground recovery actions, training of biologists, and public education specifically aimed at reducing the numbers of pet desert tortoises, while substantially increasing the numbers of wild tortoises living in the Mojave Desert.
Release Me
To that end, this spring we released 30 desert tortoises to a protected habitat in southern Nevada, and all of them were fitted with radiotransmitters prior to release. Two full-time staff track these tortoises on a daily basis and record not only their locations, but their behaviors and activities. We selected the best habitat available for the release and anticipate great success, in part due to the extensive forage available that resulted from our exceptional winter rains. These tortoises will be followed for two years, and the data we collect will help to direct our future releases. With this exciting new research, we are taking the first step in learning how to recover wild desert tortoise populations.
Fair weather friends .... count them, FIVE, agencies.
Five partners and we have to read that AP wire saying it was all a moot point. Appalling.
Here's their 2009 press release:
The Mojave desert tortoise is a threatened species living right here in the Mojave Desert, just a stone’s throw from the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Aside from their amazing adaptations for living in the desert, they are a keystone species that other animals depend upon for safety and protection.
Burrowed Time
While desert tortoises spend 95 percent of their lives in burrows that they dig deep in the soil, these burrows also serve to protect other species from predators and harsh weather conditions. In addition, tortoises disperse seeds from the native plants they eat, and as they digest, they repopulate the desert using the seeds from those plants, thereby providing food and shade to other desert animals when the plants grow. It is no understatement to say that without desert tortoises in the desert, we have no desert.
Sadly, wild populations of Mojave desert tortoises are estimated to have declined as much as 90 percent in the past 20 years; it is estimated that there are only about 150,000 wild Mojave desert tortoises remaining in critical habitat in the wild.
Live and Let Live
Although desert tortoises can live to be 50 to 100 years old, they have low reproductive success, so few eggs hatch each year in the wild, and of those that do, not many hatchlings survive to adulthood. With many threats to their survival, including predators, habitat destruction, disease, and the illegal pet trade, until recently, little hope remained that these animals that have been on the planet for 200 million years would persist through another century.
But today, we have a renewed hope for the success and continuation of Mojave desert tortoises.
In March 2009, the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as a member of the Conservation Centers for Species Survival (C2S2), began a partnership to operate the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center (DTCC) along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW).
The DTCC is the only facility of its kind, serving as a drop-off location for unwanted pet desert tortoises and a future hub for interdisciplinary research to help save not only Mojave desert tortoises but their native habitat. We are the only authorized organization permitted to take in these animals, rehabilitate them and legally release them to the wild through a structured research program to ensure their success.
Recovery Plan
One of the biggest issues we face at the DTCC is the pet desert tortoise problem, which is fueled by the backyard breeding of pet desert tortoises. There are thousands of desert tortoises being kept as pets in the Las Vegas Valley while wild populations are suffering from diminishing numbers every year. To help address this problem, the San Diego Zoo and its partners are in the process of changing the role of the Center from that of a transfer-and-holding facility to one that will support range-wide recovery efforts for the desert tortoise through conservation research, participation in on-the-ground recovery actions, training of biologists, and public education specifically aimed at reducing the numbers of pet desert tortoises, while substantially increasing the numbers of wild tortoises living in the Mojave Desert.
Release Me
To that end, this spring we released 30 desert tortoises to a protected habitat in southern Nevada, and all of them were fitted with radiotransmitters prior to release. Two full-time staff track these tortoises on a daily basis and record not only their locations, but their behaviors and activities. We selected the best habitat available for the release and anticipate great success, in part due to the extensive forage available that resulted from our exceptional winter rains. These tortoises will be followed for two years, and the data we collect will help to direct our future releases. With this exciting new research, we are taking the first step in learning how to recover wild desert tortoise populations.
I'm a reporter at the LA Times, and a keeper of two DTs. I think this story warrants further attention, and will discuss it with my editors this week. If anyone on the forum has a personal contact at the conservation center, please PM me.
Another perfect example of what happens when humans monkey with things we are just not qualified to mess with....as messed up will always follow....
Some of them will make it out...but most will die where they are now living...very heart wrenching...
Some of them will make it out...but most will die where they are now living...very heart wrenching...
Desert tortoise faces threat from its own refuge as BLM closes Vegas rescue center
By Associated Press, Published: August 25
LAS VEGAS — For decades, the vulnerable desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence.
Developers have taken pains to keep the animal safe. It’s been protected from meddlesome hikers by the threat of prison time. And wildlife officials have set the species up on a sprawling conservation reserve outside Las Vegas.
But the pampered desert dweller now faces a threat from the very people who have nurtured it.
Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they’ve been caring for since the animals were added to the endangered species list in 1990.
“It’s the lesser of two evils, but it’s still evil,†said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service desert tortoise recovery coordinator Roy Averill-Murray during a visit to the soon-to-be-shuttered reserve at the southern edge of the Las Vegas Valley last week.
Biologists went about their work examining tortoises for signs of disease as Averill-Murray walked among the reptile pens. But the scrubby 220-acre refuge area will stop taking new animals in the coming months. Most that arrive in the fall will simply be put down, late-emerging victims of budget problems that came from the same housing bubble that put a neighborhood of McMansions at the edge of the once-remote site.
The Bureau of Land Management has paid for the holding and research facility with fees imposed on developers who disturb tortoise habitat on public land. As the housing boom swept through southern Nevada in the 2000s, the tortoise budget swelled. But when the recession hit, the housing market contracted, and the bureau and its local government partners began struggling to meet the center’s $1 million annual budget.
Housing never fully recovered, and the federal mitigation fee that developers pay has brought in just $290,000 during the past 11 months. Local partners, which collect their own tortoise fees, have pulled out of the project.
“With the money going down and more and more tortoises coming in, it never would have added up,†said BLM spokeswoman Hillerie Patton.
Back at the conservation center, a large refrigerator labeled “carcass freezer†hummed in the desert sun as scientists examined the facility’s 1,400 inhabitants to find those hearty enough to release into the wild. Officials expect to euthanize more than half the animals in the coming months in preparation for closure at the end of 2014.
The desert tortoise is a survivor that has toddled around the Southwest for 200 million years. But ecologists say the loss of the conservation center represents a harmful blow in southern Nevada for an animal that has held onto some unfortunate evolutionary quirks that impede its coexistence with strip malls, new homes and solar plants.
Laws to protect the panicky plodders ban hikers from picking them up, since the animals are likely dehydrate themselves by voiding a year’s worth of stored water when handled. When they’re moved, they nearly always attempt to trudge back to their burrows, foiling attempts to keep them out of harm’s way. They’re also beset by respiratory infections and other illnesses.
No more than 100,000 tortoises are thought to survive in the habitat where millions once burrowed across parts of Utah, California, Arizona and Nevada.
The animals were once so abundant that tourists would scoop them up as souvenirs. Many quickly realized the shy grass-eaters don’t make ideal pets. (For one thing, they can live for 100 years.) And once the species was classified as threatened on the endangered species list, people rushed to give them back.
Former pets make up the majority of the tortoises at the conservation center, where they spend their days staring down jackrabbits and ducking out of the sun into protective PVC piping tucked into the rocky desert floor. Most of these animals are not suitable for release, either infected with disease or otherwise too feeble to survive.
Averill-Murray looks as world-weary as the animals he studies. He wants to save at least the research function of the center and is looking for alternative funding sources.
“It’s not the most desirable model to fund recovery — on the back of tortoise habitat,†he said.
___
Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier .
By Associated Press, Published: August 25
LAS VEGAS — For decades, the vulnerable desert tortoise has led a sheltered existence.
Developers have taken pains to keep the animal safe. It’s been protected from meddlesome hikers by the threat of prison time. And wildlife officials have set the species up on a sprawling conservation reserve outside Las Vegas.
But the pampered desert dweller now faces a threat from the very people who have nurtured it.
Federal funds are running out at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center and officials plan to close the site and euthanize hundreds of the tortoises they’ve been caring for since the animals were added to the endangered species list in 1990.
“It’s the lesser of two evils, but it’s still evil,†said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service desert tortoise recovery coordinator Roy Averill-Murray during a visit to the soon-to-be-shuttered reserve at the southern edge of the Las Vegas Valley last week.
Biologists went about their work examining tortoises for signs of disease as Averill-Murray walked among the reptile pens. But the scrubby 220-acre refuge area will stop taking new animals in the coming months. Most that arrive in the fall will simply be put down, late-emerging victims of budget problems that came from the same housing bubble that put a neighborhood of McMansions at the edge of the once-remote site.
The Bureau of Land Management has paid for the holding and research facility with fees imposed on developers who disturb tortoise habitat on public land. As the housing boom swept through southern Nevada in the 2000s, the tortoise budget swelled. But when the recession hit, the housing market contracted, and the bureau and its local government partners began struggling to meet the center’s $1 million annual budget.
Housing never fully recovered, and the federal mitigation fee that developers pay has brought in just $290,000 during the past 11 months. Local partners, which collect their own tortoise fees, have pulled out of the project.
“With the money going down and more and more tortoises coming in, it never would have added up,†said BLM spokeswoman Hillerie Patton.
Back at the conservation center, a large refrigerator labeled “carcass freezer†hummed in the desert sun as scientists examined the facility’s 1,400 inhabitants to find those hearty enough to release into the wild. Officials expect to euthanize more than half the animals in the coming months in preparation for closure at the end of 2014.
The desert tortoise is a survivor that has toddled around the Southwest for 200 million years. But ecologists say the loss of the conservation center represents a harmful blow in southern Nevada for an animal that has held onto some unfortunate evolutionary quirks that impede its coexistence with strip malls, new homes and solar plants.
Laws to protect the panicky plodders ban hikers from picking them up, since the animals are likely dehydrate themselves by voiding a year’s worth of stored water when handled. When they’re moved, they nearly always attempt to trudge back to their burrows, foiling attempts to keep them out of harm’s way. They’re also beset by respiratory infections and other illnesses.
No more than 100,000 tortoises are thought to survive in the habitat where millions once burrowed across parts of Utah, California, Arizona and Nevada.
The animals were once so abundant that tourists would scoop them up as souvenirs. Many quickly realized the shy grass-eaters don’t make ideal pets. (For one thing, they can live for 100 years.) And once the species was classified as threatened on the endangered species list, people rushed to give them back.
Former pets make up the majority of the tortoises at the conservation center, where they spend their days staring down jackrabbits and ducking out of the sun into protective PVC piping tucked into the rocky desert floor. Most of these animals are not suitable for release, either infected with disease or otherwise too feeble to survive.
Averill-Murray looks as world-weary as the animals he studies. He wants to save at least the research function of the center and is looking for alternative funding sources.
“It’s not the most desirable model to fund recovery — on the back of tortoise habitat,†he said.
___
Hannah Dreier can be reached at http://twitter.com/hannahdreier .
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2013
- Messages
- 108
BLM to kill hundreds of desert tortoises as its conservation center runs out of money
If this is true, why can't they just adopt them out??
http://www.kingsnake.com/blog/archi...ts-conservation-center-runs-out-of-money.html
If this is true, why can't they just adopt them out??
http://www.kingsnake.com/blog/archi...ts-conservation-center-runs-out-of-money.html
RE: Murder
If they plan on killing them they're just making the problem worse... I really hope this isn't true- the idea makes me sick to my stomach.
I wonder if any rescues from the surrounding areas would be willing to take on some of the "feeble" tortoises? Adopt them out, help them recover and release them, etc?
Oh please tell me this is some kind of hoax...
If they plan on killing them they're just making the problem worse... I really hope this isn't true- the idea makes me sick to my stomach.
I wonder if any rescues from the surrounding areas would be willing to take on some of the "feeble" tortoises? Adopt them out, help them recover and release them, etc?
Oh please tell me this is some kind of hoax...
The center is actually jointly run by the BLM, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), AND San Diego Zoo Global. This is part of what I'm so surprised about is that the Zoo isn't doing more about this. I understand that a lot of (or most of) the funds to run the center came from impact fees from realtors/the housing market...but the zoo has PR people, they know about fundraising. How is it that all of these people involved that supposedly, I would assume, love these tortoises and are trying to save them, could just give up so quickly and say "Okay, I guess we just have to kill 700 of them. That's our only choice".
How did this get so bad? How was no effort made before right now? How could this possibly be the only answer?
Here is a link to the San Diego Zoo Global facebook page (I struggled to find a good contact link on their website)
https://www.facebook.com/sdzglobal
Here is a separate article about desert tortoises from the USFWS that indicates Roy Averill-Murray may be somebody worth contacting
http://www.fws.gov/cno/press/release.cfm?rid=243
His phone number is at the top of that article, and his email is:
[email protected]
I think a petition should be created at change.org, and the white house petitions site as well ... I don't think I'm the best person to write the petition, because I don't necessarily know as many facts as I think I should. But I think petitions should definitely be started.
http://www.change.org/
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/
If anyone does start someone, a petition or a fundraising endeavor, or anything, please let me know! Feel free to email or private message me. I live in Florida so my capacity to help is somewhat limited, but I want to do anything I can. So let me know!
How did this get so bad? How was no effort made before right now? How could this possibly be the only answer?
Here is a link to the San Diego Zoo Global facebook page (I struggled to find a good contact link on their website)
https://www.facebook.com/sdzglobal
Here is a separate article about desert tortoises from the USFWS that indicates Roy Averill-Murray may be somebody worth contacting
http://www.fws.gov/cno/press/release.cfm?rid=243
His phone number is at the top of that article, and his email is:
[email protected]
I think a petition should be created at change.org, and the white house petitions site as well ... I don't think I'm the best person to write the petition, because I don't necessarily know as many facts as I think I should. But I think petitions should definitely be started.
http://www.change.org/
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/
If anyone does start someone, a petition or a fundraising endeavor, or anything, please let me know! Feel free to email or private message me. I live in Florida so my capacity to help is somewhat limited, but I want to do anything I can. So let me know!
ellen said:
Great! I had looked around earlier in the day and it hadn't been created yet. Thanks so much
Similar threads
