Operation Desert Tortoise is in its seventh day as Marines work to move over a thousand Desert Tortoises out of Johnson Valley. The Marines, working with about 125 wildlife biologists, expect to move 1,156 tortoises, clearing areas expected to be most disturbed by live-ammunition training missions. It’s part of a multi-year, $50 million-plus tortoise relocation and study program approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, following a 2013 vote by Congress to add about 88,000 acres in Johnson Valley to the Twentynine Palms Combat Center. Marines say the expansion will allow them to hold longer and more-involved live-ammunition desert training missions, set to start this summer. For the tortoise, a species listed as threatened with extinction, it means the loss of more than 100 square miles of quality habitat.
