State and Federal Agencies are soliciting assistance from the public in the development of an environmental assessment (EA) to analyze management options to reduce raven predation on the desert tortoise and other reptiles and mammals, which is occurring throughout the deserts of southern California. The desert tortoise is a Federal and State-listed threatened species.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is the lead agency for this proposal. Based upon the analysis gathered in the EA, the Service, which is also a participating member of the Desert Managers Group (DMG), will determine how it and the cooperating agencies of the DMG can best respond to the need to protect the desert tortoise from further decline resulting from raven predation. The DMG is a consortium of eight State, Federal and military agencies which work together to manage Federal and State lands within southern California.
Raven populations have increased more than 1,000 percent in the past 25 years in large part to human-provided food sources of food, water, and nesting sites. Monitoring indicates raven predation has had extensive impacts on juvenile tortoise populations throughout the desert, greatly reducing the number of young tortoises surviving to adulthood. The goal of the EA is not to eliminate ravens from the region, but to restore a balanced predator-prey relationship.
Proposals for the raven management program include utilizing both non-lethal and lethal tools in conjunction with the most effective and humane methods available to deter or remove ravens responsible for predation of juvenile tortoises.
Non-lethal tools may encompass any of the following: reduce human food subsidies, reduce the availability of carcasses of road-killed animals along highways in tortoise habitat, remove raven nests outside the nesting season within two miles of tortoise management areas, and reduce potential nesting sites (telephone poles, etc.) in tortoise habitat. Lethal tools could include shooting, trapping, and poisoning. Another lethal alternative is that young ravens and eggs found in nests of removed adults would be euthanized humanely.
DMG members cooperating with the Service in the development of the EA include the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Edwards Air Force Base, the Marine Corps bases at Barstow and Twentynine Palms, the Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake, and the National Training Center at Fort Irwin.
Written comments should be sent to: USFWS Raven Management Environmental Assessment, c/o Amy L. Fesnock, Joshua Tree National Park, 74485 National Park Drive, Twentynine Palms, Calif. 92277. Comments may be submitted by email to: amy_fesnock@nps.gov"> with subject indicating Raven Management, or by fax to (760) 367-5588. Faxed copies should also be mailed.
The public also is encouraged to provide the following information, which will be considered in the analysis process:
Your relationship (recreationist, concerned citizen, etc.) to the proposed project or to the potential environmental impacts of raven management to protect desert tortoises;
What issues you consider most important that should be included in this analysis;
Your primary concerns with raven management and protecting the desert tortoise;
Your expectations on how raven predation on desert tortoise should be managed; and,
Which alternatives should be considered to achieve successful desert tortoise management.
Please submit comments by Monday, August 16, 2004, to ensure they will be analyzed in the development of the EA. Members of the public who submit comments will be notified when the EA is available and a copy can be mailed if requested in the comment letter. Therefore, complete addresses should be provided, or if preferred, an email address to receive an electronic version of the document.
