Federal authorities approve California tortoise removal

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Federal authorities approve California tortoise removal

Mar. 3, 2017 10:26 PM EST

TWENTYNINE PALMS, Calif. (AP) — Federal authorities have approved a plan to move nearly 1,500 desert tortoises from a California Marine base.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise (http://bit.ly/2mnGrVs ) says the Navy and the Bureau of Land Management have signed off on the proposal.

The Marine Corps wants to remove the tortoises from about 88,000 acres of land at the Twentynine Palms base in the Mojave Desert so it can use the area for training.

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Critics say the move will devastate the threatened species.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/d218ba8f24604cdd9e58f60a25cb41e2/federal-authorities-approve-california-tortoise-removal

[democratisphere]

1. It a big country. Go find another place to train. Last thing we need is another extinct species.

[procon]

2. The desert tortoise is a very fragile critter.

I worked on another military base in the same region, and there were all kinds of laws protecting them because they were as a threatened species. The base was very diligent in trying to protect them and there were standing orders to check under vehicles to see if a tortoise had crawled into the shade. We couldn't touch them because they were not only susceptible to bacteria, but the stress of being handled might kill them. There were special handlers who would come and scoop them into a dark box and take them to a safe area.

[Rhiannon12866]

3. Thanks so much for the background

This is heartbreaking. We lament those species we lost and these morans are doing it on purpose. And I love tortoises, had a Eastern Painted Turtle for a pet when I was a kid and when I worked summers at an amusement park, I rescued and re-homed the snapping turtles where the swan boats sailed because they wanted to destroy them (afraid of lawsuits).