Storms, fires hurt tortoises, cultural sites

Friday, July 22, 2005 | 9:23 a.m.

Mojave Desert tortoise habitat and American Indian cultural sites are among the resources hurt by winter storms and threatened by wildfires, a team of 11 specialists said Thursday.

The Burned Area Emergency Response Team representing several federal agencies had finished initial air and ground surveys by Thursday, team leader Erv Gasser of the National Park Service said.

The team studied threatened and endangered species such as the desert tortoise, Southwestern willow flycatcher, five types of fish, bald eagles and California condors.

In addition they checked cultural sites, invasive weeds, flood debris, wild horses and burros, mule deer ranges, six wilderness areas, suppression impacts and recreation impacts.

Critical tortoise habitat will be reseeded within the Las Vegas and Ely districts of the Bureau of Land Management, Gasser said.

Other seeds will be sown for controlling erosion and combat invasive weeds that burned during the late June wildfires, he said.

The federal agencies will post signs warning of flood hazards, unsafe areas where fires have burned extensively, exposed landscape, barbed wire fences and open mines, Gasser said.

Five species of endemic fish -- the Meadow Valley dace, the Meadow Valley desert sucker, the Virgin River chub, the Virgin River woundfin and the Virgin River specked dace -- are recovering from both winter flooding and summer wildfires, Gasser said.

"When the rain comes or the wind blows, ash is carried to the rivers," Gasser said. The fish have adapted to the flush of sediments and will survive without any further measures, he said.

Primary objectives of the survey team include protecting life and property and reduce further resource damage from future fires or floods.

Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Park Service, and U.S. Forest Service sent a team of experts including hydrologists, soil scientists, archaeologists, environmental compliance checkers, wildlife biologists and exerts on plants, range, animals and forestry.