Desert Tortoise Recovery Office

New Approach to Recovery Plan Revision

A significant hurdle to successful, broad-based collaboration is uncertainty surrounding the scientific foundation for desert tortoise recovery. A few primary issues dominate this uncertainty: 1) the relative importance of various threats affecting the desert tortoise, 2) the effectiveness of specific recovery actions in mitigating threats, and 3) baseline data on desert tortoise populations, habitat, and threats. The Service acknowledges these uncertainties and has crafted a document that specifically outlines the scientific foundation on which the current recovery plan revision will be based. The Foundation for Recovery Plan Revision summarizes the general scientific basis, assumptions, and conclusions relevant to the current status of desert tortoise recovery. The Service will use this foundation to develop regional recovery actions, including specific actions that address key scientific uncertainties, in coordination with the MOG (for the purposes of this strategy, the MOG is defined to include federal, state, and county government officials).

Two MOG workgroups, one for California and one for Arizona-Nevada-Utah, will develop recovery action plans that will form the basis of the revised recovery plan. Meetings of these workgroups will include an open session for any stakeholders to provide input into the process. The DTRO will work with the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) to review and integrate draft recovery action plans and other input from the MOG with recovery criteria and research priorities. Regional workshops will provide an additional opportunity for broad stakeholder input into the recovery action plans. A general timeline has been developed and will be updated on this site, so you can keep track of progress of the recovery plan revision process.

Relative to the collaboration spectrum described in the assessment report, the Service has and will continue to “Inform” and “Consult” with the public and interested parties about the recovery planning process. The Service will “Involve” interested parties through the regional workshops and will “Collaborate” with MOG members in the development of regional recovery action plans.