California’s Mojave desert tortoises move toward extinction. Why saving them is so hard.
California’s Mojave desert tortoises move toward extinction. Why saving them is so hard.
June 11, 2012 — In the Mojave Desert of California, the first year of the federal government’s planned Endangered Species Act listing was supposed to be a triumphant moment for the state’s imperiled tortoise.
But when the federal government announced in March that the five species it listed — five species in all — are now officially in danger of “threatened” or “endangered” — a rating that is now more commonly associated with the name of the state’s largest bird, the California condor — the euphoria disappeared fast.
The five species are the California ground horned lizard, the California gopher tortoise, the California spiny lizard, the California pond turtle and the Mojave desert tortoise. Together they number more than 60 million but have suffered a near meltdown over the last 20 years with many being driven to extinction or endangered species status.
These and other endangered species are the only native inhabitants of the vast desert where there are almost no people. Here, nature has been turned over to man, as if the entire world were a collection of pet shops.
“I can’t imagine living in California without it being a desert,” said Bill Van Duzek, the president of Turtle Island, a nonprofit that works to conserve the desert tortoise. “The only thing that could cause that would be the introduction of man and his influence on the land that was there before. I think that’s a little like the moon and the stars being put together and man being put in the center of what nature used to be before they came.”
On a hot day in October, some 100 of us stood in the scrubby shade of one of the few tree-lined roads in the Mojave Desert. About 50 miles to the west, California’s highest peak, Mount San Jacinto, stood like a white jewel in the sky.
In front of us a group of tortoise enthusiasts had gathered. A sign on the road explained that no one in attendance was certified as a certified wildlife caretaker, even though on our planet we seem to
