Conservation solution was slow developing, but considered nation’s best

Adrienne Packer

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

Conversations were tense, residents were outraged and meetings were so heated they had to be held in the Clark County Courthouse where metal detectors could weed out the armed.

Ten years ago the booming Las Vegas Valley was jolted by news from the federal government that a creature that lives underground 90 percent of its life could stifle growth in Clark County.

On Aug. 4, 1989, Southern Nevada's desert tortoises were given emergency status on the endangered-species list.

The consequences to the economy appeared to be devastating: huge construction projects were halted, ranchers and farmers could no longer allow their cattle to graze and the mining industry sputtered.

The name calling and emotional outbursts made it look like a compromise or solution would never be discovered. But after years of arguments residents hammered out a conservation plan that today is considered the nation's best.

While most people who were involved in producing the plan are eager to talk about its success, few can forget how the desert tortoise polarized the community.

"A lot of folks in Southern Nevada thought it was a lot of nonsense; it was a threat to their livelihood," recalls Paul Selzer, a Southern California attorney who Clark County quickly corralled in 1989 to soothe tempers.

Selzer's immediate task was not a simple one: As a facilitator, he had to persuade environmentalists that developers were important to the community and he had to assure developers that desert tortoises were worth saving.

Until every interest group in the county could agree on a plan to save the dwindling tortoise population, anybody who harmed one of the creatures -- accidentally or not -- was subject to a $25,000 fine.

Although no moratorium was placed on construction, the industry was hardest hit. The listing came just two months after the Summerlin Parkway was finished and, as a result, development of northwest Las Vegas was delayed two years.

"From what (developers) knew, unless a major miracle occurred, that area was not going to be developed," said Terry Murphy, who then represented the Southern Nevada Homebuilders Association.

It might have been a minor miracle that a plan ever developed. Early discussions between various interest groups -- conservationists, off-road enthusiasts, federal land management agencies and developers -- were hardly peaceful.

"In the beginning it was like a high school dance, only it wasn't boys on one side, girls on the other," he said. "It was environmentalists and developers -- long hair and beards on one side and suits and cowboy boots on the other."

Nobody dreamed the group of about 35 people -- each with concrete beliefs on how the desert should be used -- would be satisfied with one plan that documented exactly how to save the tortoise.

But in 1991, all sides compromised enough to develop a short-term Habitat Conservation Plan. And in 1995, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved the group's 30-year plan.

The plan

Clark County officials estimate it took more than 800 painful hours to work out the plan. And they weren't necessarily surprised the document is heralded across the country as a prime example of public participation.

"Even going through the process, I felt like we were doing something really special," Murphy said. "We have one of the least expensive, most comprehensive plans in the world."

Clark County's conservation plan was recently highlighted in a report published by the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment.

What makes the plan so unique is not only the public input, but the science that supports the program, said Dick Tracy, a University of Nevada, Reno professor.

Developers pay the county's building division $550 per acre for each project. The money feeds the Desert Tortoise Plan budget, which amounts to between $1.3 million and $1.6 million a year.

Some developers still rescue tortoises, however, in exchange for the fee, they can legally kill the reptiles during construction. Rather than working to save tortoises near the city, the focus has turned to the nation's largest tortoise preserve -- a 30-square-mile site near Jean.

Tortoises found roaming in the city or picked up at construction sites are first taken to the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center near Blue Diamond, where they are tested for diseases. Once examined, the reptiles are hauled to the preserve.

The site is hardly a dumping ground, although 1,800 desert tortoises have been taken to the Bureau of Land Management-owned property since 1996. Burrows are started and shade is provided for each tortoise set free on the cactus-dotted land.

The compromise that allows crews to "take" tortoises during construction hasn't been embraced by everybody.

Betty Burge, president of the Southern Nevada Tortoise Council believes that not only should the plan require fences to be installed alongside highways, but developers should be forced to remove the tortoises before construction begins.

"Sudden death is one thing, maiming and burying them alive is another," Burge said. "We should be doing something about that; I still get calls from people because developers aren't trying to to save tortoises."

Tracy said a significant amount of the tortoise plan funding goes toward research at the relocation site. For example, biologists have increased survival rates by learning when, where and how to release the reptiles.

Scientists are also studying densities. In the wild, about 50 tortoises live within a square mile; at the preserve, 90 reptiles share a square mile. And Tracy believes in many areas of the country, as many as 1,000 tortoises in the wild share a square mile.

The chief investigator for the translocation project said the numbers in the wild are fewer because development has adversely affected the population.

"Our knowledge has increased so greatly we feel our management at this point is far better directed than it could have been several years ago," Tracy said. "It creates good optimism for the fate of the tortoise."

Tracy works on habitat conservation plans from Texas to California, he attends seminars and most recently U.S. Senate hearings on conservation. Clark County, he said, is truly being used as a model. Despite the program's national recognition, Tracy is still frequently asked one question: Why spend millions of dollars on saving the desert tortoise? His answer is simple. Ethical arguments aside, long-living animals are invaluable to medical studies.

The green and brown reptiles, which can live to be 80 or 100 years old, live primarily in the Mojave Desert

"They represent a natural library of information about life," Tracy said. "It's important biologically for that reason."

A lesson learned

The primary reason Burge moved to Southern Nevada in 1973 was to study desert tortoises. And she quickly realized there weren't going to be many left to study unless some sort of action was taken.

However, the alarms she sounded were consistently ignored.

"I couldn't get anywhere talking to county commissioners about removing tortoises before they started to develop," she said. "There was no interest at all. Development was supposed to be a good thing. If you restrict developers for any length of time, well, administrators are hesitant to do that."

When the surprise desert tortoise listing hit Las Vegas, it became a multi-million-dollar endeavor for developers and taxpayers to resurrect the problem.

Now that the desert tortoise plan is under way and deemed a national success, Clark County is pursuing a more aggressive, comprehensive Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan aimed at saving 240 species of plants and animals.

"I think everybody has gotten over this knee-jerk reaction," Burge said. "They see that we have not stopped development. Let's face it, the developers have done pretty well despite all this."

Cynthia Truelove, the county's Desert Conservation Plan coordinator, said commissioners told her staff the latest document cannot require developer fees to rise or limit the use of the desert.

The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife Service has also guaranteed the county that if any of the species listed in the plan become endangered, it will not ask that more money be pumped into protection programs.

"All the stakeholders are in favor of the plan and they want to see it move forward so we don't have another surprise listing," Truelove said.

The first phase of the plan, which will target about 80 species, is expected to be approved by the end of the year. The plan will be carried out using the desert tortoise funds collected from developers.

"It was unanimous to do this again with all species that could become endangered," Selzer said. "This issue is contentious throughout the United States; there are a lot of people who think this is nonsense. But here, there was significant enough economical interest and user interest, they unanimously said let's do it."

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