Bush Warned of Threats to Desert Tortoise and California Condor on Public Land

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The Center for Biological Diversity today notified the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service of its intent to file a lawsuit against the agencies for their failure to protect the desert tortoise and the California condor, as well as other species, in crafting their management plans for huge tracts of public land near the Grand Canyon. The management plans created by the federal agencies govern most activities in the Arizona Strip – the largely public land in northwestern Arizona bordered by the Grand Canyon to the south. The land includes portions of two popular national monuments: Grand Canyon-Parashant and Vermilion Cliffs. The agencies’ plans authorize a number of activities, including roads and off-road vehicle use; livestock grazing; construction of power lines; oil and gas exploration and drilling; and uranium mining, all of which will result in harm to the desert tortoise and condor in violation of the Endangered Species Act. The plans also fail to require use of non-lead ammunition by hunters on public land managed by the Bureau. The use of lead ammunition has been clearly demonstrated to cause lead poisoning of the condor, and was recently banned by the State of California. At issue in the agencies’ management plans is their reliance on a biological opinion prepared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that signed off on numerous impacts to endangered species while ignoring others. The biological opinion, and the BLM and Park Service’s reliance on it, both violate the Endangered Species Act.