CA: Army buys land to compensate for tank training expansion (SoCal)

Bakersfield Californian ^ | 1/18/05 | AP

[NormsRevenge]

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) - Three desert cattle ranches and some former railroad property in San Bernardino County have been purchased by the U.S. Army as part of a deal that will allow it to expand its tank-training center onto land set aside as endangered-species habitat.

As part of the plan, free-ranging cattle - which compete with desert tortoises for food - will be eliminated from 250,000 acres in the western Mojave Desert. It clears the way for the Army to train tank brigades in Superior Valley, an area considered crucial to survival of the reptile.

"It's got the healthiest, most robust tortoise population," Daniel Patterson of the Center for Biological Diversity in Idyllwild told the The Press-Enterprise.

The Army has been trying to expand its Fort Irwin National Training Center into tortoise habitat for two decades. Environmentalists said the reptile is threatened with extinction and the Army's expansion will further erode a critical habitat.

The 643,000-acre Fort Irwin training site needs the additional 131,000 acres to accommodate faster tanks and longer-ranging weapons used each month to train some 4,000 troops, the military said.

The Army wouldn't disclose how much it paid for the land. The properties include nearly 100,000 acres of land stretching from south of Barstow to Fort Irwin. The land was owned by Catellus Development Corp., a former arm of the Santa Fe railway.

Army program manager for land expansion Anthony Rekas said the money came from a $75 million pot approved by Congress to cover protective measures for the tortoise and an endangered plant that grows in the expansion area.

The Army can remove the cattle to eliminate them as a threat to the tortoises or it can move some 1,000 tortoises that now live in the expansion area.

"We need to evaluate the habitat, and you don't want to rush out and translocate tortoises into an area that will exceed the number of tortoises you can have there. We're going to do some real science," Fort Irwin resources manager Mickey Quillman said.

Environmental groups said relocation of tortoises will be watched closely.

"It takes a long time (for them) to work out the details of their habitat. Some have been there 50, 60 or 70 years, and they know every inch of their habitat," said Michael Connor, executive director of the Riverside-based Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee.

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Information from: The Press-Enterprise, http://www.pe.com

[26lemoncharlie]

Why don't they buy up some land along the Border with Mexico and Canada?! They can train and protect the Borders at the same time!!

[holyscroller]

The turtles and the Hare-brains!