Editorial: Slow recovery

Thursday, June 29, 2006 | 7:43 a.m.

Scaly and slow, Southern Nevada's desert tortoise struggles to keep up

It can be hard to warm up to a desert tortoise. They aren't particularly cuddly or animated. And they move far too slowly in a fast-paced society, as evidenced by the ever-growing desert development that threatens this reptile's very existence.

In a story this week, Las Vegas Sun reporter Launce Rake outlined the measures that government officials, developers and activist groups have taken to save this endangered species from extinction and also the reasons that keeping the tortoise around is important.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local governments have a 30-year plan that limits Southern Nevada's urban development to 140,000 acres beyond the 2001 threshold of developed land. Developers pay $550 per acre for a conservation program, which also is supported by proceeds from federal land sales. The Clark County Desert Conservation Program is charged with relocating tortoises displaced by development and maintaining a vast, 27,000-acre relocation area.

But the 17-year-old conservation program has had some problems. A Sun investigation in November showed that the program suffered from a lack of accountability and conflicts of interest regarding contracts awarded for research projects, such as how development affects the endangered animal. A new director is helping to correct those issues.

But the program's studies also have been hobbled by bureaucratic tangles and federal red tape, the Sun reported earlier this month. As a result, there isn't solid data on the tortoise's population numbers or habitat. And such challenges may make some wonder why we bother to protect this animal at all.

We do it because we should. As Rake reported, desert tortoise burrows provide many other animals with refuge from the harsh desert. Its existence also may help determine whether sustenance is adequate for other species. Most important, as one county official told the Sun, the tortoise "has an inherent right to exist, and it is not our place to eliminate it." We should strive to learn all that we can about the tortoise while we still have the opportunity.

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