The Marine Corps’ plan to move more than 1.400 desert tortoises from the Johnson Valley Off-Road area to a BLM-managed habitat has been cancelled. The Marines were going to move the endangered species reptiles to Bureau of Land Management habitat near Barstow, so the 88,000-acre Johnson Valley area could be used for live ammunition training during the summer. The plan called for the tortoises to be moved as early as this month. To reduce stress on the animals, they were to be flown by helicopter to the Ord-Rodman Critical Habitat Unit. Both the manager of the BLM’s Barstow field office, and Twentynine Palms Marine Base representatives sent emails to the media Wednesday confirming that the move won’t be this spring. The project cancellation comes a week after environmentalists with the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit objecting to the move and a day after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the they had not approved a required relocation plan.
