Victory for Desert Tortoises: Marine Corps Postpones Relocation
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Center for Biological Diversity
April 2016

Less than two weeks after the Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent to sue federal agencies over a risky plan to relocate more than 1,100 protected desert tortoises in the Mojave Desert, the Marine Corps announced Friday its plan to postpone the move.

The relocation, aimed at expanding combat-training space for the Corps' base at Twentynine Palms, Calif., could take a staggering toll on the threatened animals. Tortoises in the west Mojave region are already in drastic decline, and recent research shows survival rates of less than 50 percent among tortoises displaced in previous efforts.

Preparations for the relocation (which would have been one of the largest ever attempted) were halted after the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management -- on receiving the Center's notice of intent -- asked for more time to review the plan.

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