U.S. Quarantines Desert Area to Protect Tortoise

The federal Bureau of Land Management announced Tuesday a temporary emergency quarantine of 37,700 acres in the western Mojave Desert to protect the area’s endangered desert tortoises.

The quarantine will prohibit access without bureau permission to the 18,000-acre Desert Tortoise Natural Area in Kern County, as well as desert and mountain areas north of the tortoise habitat.

Bureau officials and environmental activists have said the presence of human visitors has increased stress on the tortoises, whose population has declined because of a respiratory disease and attacks by ravens. Federal officials recently issued an emergency declaration temporarily designating the desert tortoise an endangered species while studies continue on threats to the reptile.

“We are facing drastic declines in desert tortoise populations in this critical habitat,” said Gerald Hillier, the bureau’s California desert district manager. “There are some indications that current activities within the area may be raising the level of stress in the tortoises, thus making them more susceptible to the disease.”

The quarantine will take effect Oct. 1 and last as long as a year, officials said. The BLM imposed the quarantine on 37,700 acres, rather than 65,000 acres as originally proposed by an advisory group. That way, researchers can observe how tortoises in areas that are off limits to humans are doing compared to tortoises living in areas that are not restricted.