Bureau of Land Management Moves to Approve Utah Highway Through Critical Tortoise Habitat

Today, the Trump administration moved one step closer to approving a highway project that would cut through critical habitat for the Agassiz's desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) as well as the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and Desert Reserve, which was designated for the conservation of the federally threatened desert tortoise. 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) published the final environmental impact statement for the Northern Corridor project. This triggers a 30-day period to protest the Resource Management Plan Amendments necessary for the highway right-of-way.

“The habitat that the BLM wants to bulldoze is integral to the desert tortoise’s survival. If this were a game of Jenga, this highway is the piece that may just cause the tower to tumble,” said Vera Smith, senior federal lands policy analyst for Defenders of Wildlife. “Defenders will fight this highway and any other proposal that will push this remarkable tortoise closer to extinction.” 

Tortoise Experts Available: Tom Egan and Jeff Aardahl with our California program team, and Vera Smith, with our federal lands team, are available for comment. Please contact Rebecca Bullis (rbullis@defenders.org) to reach them.

Background:

• The BLM and FWS in response to a proposal by Utah Department of Transportation are on the verge of approving a right-of-way for a highway through the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and Desert Reserve and designated critical habitat. The highway would eviscerate habitat deemed integral to the tortoise’s survival.   
• The BLM and FWS in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement evaluated alternatives that would both address traffic congestion and not invade the National Conservation Area (NCA) and Desert Reserve.
• The 62,000-acre Red Cliffs Desert Reserve—of which approximately 70 percent is now within the congressionally-designated Red Cliffs NCA—was established as mitigation for development in tortoise habitat per the Washington County 1995 habitat conservation plan.
• A 2018 study showed adult tortoise population numbers have dropped by over 50% in some recovery areas since 2004, and by as much as 80-90% in some designated critical habitat units since approximately 1980.
• The desert tortoise was listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1990. A recovery plan prepared by the USFWS was adopted in 1994, with Critical Habitat concurrently designated. A revised recovery plan was adopted in 2011, noting distinct problems in responsible agencies implementing previous recovery plan actions.