http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/12/us/endangered-tortoise-slows-building-boom-in-las-vegas.htmlClark County's 1991 Short-Term Habitat Conservation Plan confirms:
With the federal listing of the tortoise in 1989, local government in the valley was challenged with ensuring protection of the tortoise under the federal ESA while allowing land development to proceed in an orderly manner.It's all about mitigation for development elsewhere. Quite simply, there's money to be made and Bundy is in the way.Public officials from Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Boulder City decided to seek a Section 10(a)(1)(B) incidental take permit under the ESA for the incidental take of desert tortoise within a portion of Las Vegas Valley.
http://www.clarkcountynv.gov/Depts/dcp/Documents/Library/Guiding%20Docs/previous/1991_ShortTermHabitatConservationPlan.pdf
NICE snag.
Quite simply, there's money to be made by Lord Harry Reid, malevolent spawn of a retarded troll father and evil dwarf mother, and Bundy is in the way.