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Desert Tortoise Recovery Office
Recovery Plan Assessment
 In March 2003, the Service assembled a Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan Assessment (8.8 MB PDF Document) Committee (DTRPAC) lead by the University of Nevada, Reno, to reassess the recovery plan and make recommendations to the Service on what sections of the Recovery Plan should be revised. This team gathered and evaluated existing and new information on the status and trends of desert tortoise populations and recommended changes to the recovery plan based on new information. The DTRPAC was purposely assembled with scientists and experts diverse in terms of State representation, institutions of employment, gender, and scientific expertise. Some members were chosen who are not doing research on the desert tortoise.
The Committee’s final recommendations were presented to the Desert Tortoise Management Oversight Group in February 2004. The Service began revising the recovery plan in April 2004.
DTRPAC Findings and Recommendations
. The Recovery Plan of 1994 was fundamentally sound, but some modifications for contemporary management will likely make recovery more successful.
. Complex meta analyses of tortoise distributions and abundances indicate trends leading away from recovery goals in some parts of the species range. These results indicate a need for more aggressive initiatives to facilitate recovery.
. A USFWS Desert Tortoise Recovery Office (DTRO) should be established to facilitate and coordinate recovery efforts based upon an adaptive-management approach with advice from a Science Advisory Committee (SAC).
. Many of the original prescriptions of the Recovery Plan were never implemented. These prescriptions continue to be appropriate and they should be implemented. However, synergistic, interacting, and cumulative threats, not appreciated by the original Recovery Team, also must be addressed and new prescriptions should be prioritized from analyses of analyses of "threats network topologies" assembled by the DTRPAC to assess redundancies and synergies within individual threats.
. Recovery planning should reflect distinctness of population segments within the species range. The genetic distinctness of tortoise populations and of their pathogens must be assessed to guide all manipulative management (e.g., head starting, translocation, habitat restoration, corridor management, etc.). A newly proposed (by the DTRPAC) delineation of DPSs should be revised with new scientific information.
. Status and trends of populations/meta populations within DPSs are potentially impossible based only upon assessment of tortoise density because assessing density of populations for rare and cryptic species is exceedingly difficult (and potentially impossible). Thus, monitoring the efficacy of management actions should be based upon a comprehensive
assessment of the status and trends of threats and habitats as well as population numbers.
. A new definition of recovery is needed as assessing recovery defined in terms of a population that is demonstrably increasing or remaining stable may not be possible. The new definition should be based upon achievable assessment of progress toward recovery as assessed in the status and trends of threats, habitats, and population distribution and
abundance.
. The original paradigm of desert tortoises being recovered in large populations relieved of intense threats may be flawed as tortoises may have evolved to depend upon meta population dynamics. Assessing the appropriateness of the meta population paradigm is very important as management under this paradigm could require more intense actions (including head starting, genetics management, habitat management and
facilitated dispersal, herd immunization, and other artificially facilitated ecosystem
processes).
Management actions are not at the sole discretion of the Service. We are members of two groups that provide management guidance on tortoise recovery throughout the Southwest. The Desert Tortoise Management Oversight Group and the Desert Managers Group have representatives from several federal and state land management agencies. These groups also seek input from desert users - ranchers, environmental organizations, off-road vehicle enthusiasts, etc., to identify common goals consistent with desert tortoise recovery.
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