Trouble in tortoiseland?

The outlook isn't looking good for the desert tortoise.

First, its fragile habitat was encroached upon by development, off-road vehicles and the expansion of Fort Irwin's boundaries. Then, biologists found that a deadly disease - which starts like a bad cold but never goes away - was decimating tortoise populations in our area.

Now, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is weakening a recovery plan for the endangered terrapin.

According to a press release from the center:

"Though desert tortoise populations have continued to crash since that listing, the new draft plan weakens protections and provides few on-the-ground actions for tortoise conservation. 
...
In place of providing immediate, firm protections for desert tortoise, the draft plan proposes a time-consuming process of monitoring and adaptive management. The plan provides only vague descriptions of recovery actions and fails to derive those actions from the best available science. For example, it fails to tackle solutions to many of the scientifically recognized threats to desert tortoise, including disease, roads, off-road vehicles, grazing, weeds, increased fire risk, and other causes of habitat degradation."

You can draw your own conclusions. The plan is online and can be accessed by clicking here.