Summit County Citizens Voice

Conservation groups sought sport-hunting rules to protect endangered desert tortoise; agency wins case on procedural grounds

Desert tortoise. PHOTO COURTESY BEKEE HOTZE, USGS.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — A decade-long saga involving the fate of desert tortoises, careless hunters and a big dose of politics ended last month, as a federal court refused to make the National Park Service uphold one of its own management rules for the Mojave National Preserve.

In 2001, regional park service director John Reynolds signed off on a new management plan for the reserve that include a limit on sport hunting. Reynolds adopted the plan despite opposition from California Fish and Game with only a minor modification to allow for rabbit hunting.

Hunting of non-game animals is permitted year-round without limit on the sprawling preserve, a tract the size of Delaware. While the threatened desert tortoise is protected by law from hunting it is often the victim of reckless discharge of firearms. In addition, carcasses left by hunters attract ravens, which prey on tortoises.

When the park service didn’t draft rules to implement the plan, conservation and watchdog groups filed a petition for rulemaking under the Administrative Procedures Act in June 2002. There was no response until April, 2004, when a top Interior Department official issued a written promise that the park service would develop those rules.

After another five years, In April 2009, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility wrote to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar about the long-ignored petition. The Secretary did not respond. The APA requires that agencies respond to petitions for rulemaking “in a timely fashion.”  PEER concluded that an eight-year wait satisfied any reasonable test of “timely.” In July 2010 PEER filed a suit in federal court, challenging the agency to meet the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act.

In October 2010, National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis finally denied the petition, deciding that the he would not carry out the agency’s own decision to regulate sport hunting.

Jarvis also waived park service policies that the Mojave preserve, like every other park in which Congress authorizes hunting, must adopt special regulations to govern and manage that hunting.

“We regret that we failed to convince the judge that this sudden reversal was an abuse of discretion,” said Paula Dinerstein who argued the case on behalf of PEER.

“PEER is not opposed to hunting as a legitimate recreational use of the Preserve, but hunting does not take precedence over all other park values including those of other park visitors who wish to experience the quiet of the Preserve without hunting for part of the year. We hope that someday more a thoughtful and caring Park Service steward will give the benefit of the doubt to park resources.”

PEER claims that, by reversing the 2001 Bush administration decision to protect Preserve resources, Jarvis sets a standard lower than his predecessor Fran Mainella by reversing part of the 2001 plan without any input from the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Mojave is not the only park unit where Obama NPS officials have lowered protections adopted under Bush. At Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, PEER is suing NPS over its decision to open previously protected tracts to 130 miles of trails for off-road vehicles.

“We are surprised that the present Park Service leadership is managing to make the Bush record look good,” Dinerstein concluded.

Filed under: biodiversity, endangered species, Environment, federal government, national parks, Summit County news, wildlife Tagged: | biodiversity, endangered species, Environment, Mojave National Preserve, National Park Service, PEER, Summit County News