The State : Court Limits Raven Kills

A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s program to kill ravens in an effort to protect the desert tortoise, a threatened species. The decline of the tortoise has been hastened by ravens who prey upon thin-shelled juveniles and have multiplied because food sources in the desert have increased. In May, the BLM began killing ravens near Twentynine Palms and in the Desert Tortoise Natural Area preserve near California City. The agency obtained a permit to kill 1,500 ravens with guns or poison. But the program was halted by court order after protests from the Humane Society. Under the settlement, only 56 ravens may be killed in two areas. Some supporters of the raven-reduction program criticized the agreement, saying that killing just 56 birds will be of little protective value to the tortoise.