Looking for another way to help some desert tortoises? If you are reading this you very likely are!
We encourage you to check out this local effort to stop a development in Wonder Valley, CA and send in a comment!
The developers are looking to plop a huge luxury resort in this quiet desert town and disrupt local wildlife corridors, pollute the night sky with light, draw on already extremely stretched resources, and worst of all, uproot this tortoise (pictured below) from its home located directly on the proposed construction zone.
Credit: Circle Mountain Biological
This tortoise was found on a professionally done study performed by two acclaimed tortoise biologists in April of 2020. The developer has chosen to ignore this study with the hope that nobody would notice. But it’s not just this one tortoise.
Credit: Circle Mountain Biological
We also took a stroll around the property’s boundary to have a look for ourselves and found numerous tortoise signs bordering the property (multiple scats less than a year old and a burrow). These signs indicate that tortoises still use the area and undoubtedly move through this proposed development site in search of already scarce food. The animals would surely be displaced by the project moving forward.
Credit: Saving Slowpoke
****MAJOR UPDATE:****
It was a beautiful warm day so we decided to walk around the boundary of the proposed property again and found this beautiful hatchling near its impromptu burrow, not 50 yards from the property line. This is proof that Desert Tortoise reproduce in this area! All the more reason to protect it from increased traffic and development.
Credit: Saving Slowpoke, found 2/13/2023
Please take some time to research and contribute to this good cause and help some wild desert torts! Every voice and comment matters in this sort of fight!
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