Project Details

The need for this project is to acquire and protect habitat for the Mojave Desert tortoise to complement the goals of the Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and contribute to the tortoise's recovery, as a species.

In 1990, the Mojave Desert tortoise was listed as a threatened species due to various threats, including loss of habitat, invasive plants, wildfire, disease, increased predation and illegal collecting. Management and recovery of this species is particularly complex because it encompasses several states, each with different agencies and land uses.

In 1996, Washington County, Utah established a 61,000-acre Red Cliffs Desert Reserve to protect the tortoise and its most valuable habitat remaining in the state. Creation and management of the Reserve were the primary recovery contributions of the County's Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). In 2009, the Reserve was also granted federal protection with the designation of the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area (NCA). Under this designation only the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) -administered lands were considered part of the NCA, however any future purchases or exchanges of the private property within the Reserve could become a part of the NCA as well.

The Red Cliffs Desert Reserve is the primary habitat for Mojave Desert tortoise in the Upper Virgin River Recovery Unit (Figure 1). With an average of 19.6 tortoises per square kilometer, the Reserve boasts the highest densities of Mojave Desert tortoises remaining in the wild (McLuckie et al. 2017). Occurring at the very northeastern limit of the tortoise's range, the Reserve is also the smallest recovery unit, representing less than 1% of all tortoise management areas. Marked by its spectacular red rock canyons and basaltic lava flows, the  Reserve is located at an intergrade zone between the Mojave Desert, Colorado Plateau, and the Great Basin Desert. As a result, it contains a unique combination of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.

Since the Reserves' inception, Washington County, BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Utah Department of Natural Resources (UDNR) and other partners, have been working diligently to purchase or trade out all private inholdings within the Reserve. The HCP agreement identified three major land acquisition strategies (3.2 HCP 1996) and carefully outlined the acquisition responsibilities: 1. State School Trust - BLM land exchange, 2. Private -BLM land exchange, and 3. Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

Additionally, UDNR has been awarded Section 6 funds to assist in the acquisition of Reserve inholdings. All of these strategies rely on support from Federal agencies and do not specifically require the County to purchase the lands as a part of their mitigation (the County's primary HCP mitigation responsibility is management of the Reserve).

To date, approximately 10,000 acres of private property have been acquired through purchase or land exchange in the Reserve and over $100 million dollars have been spent in cash and land exchange value. In 2015 UDNR was able to complete the purchase for 101 acres of private Reserve inholdings largely from funds awarded through another section 6 grant. Although we are closer to buying out all of the inholdings, nearly 660 acres of the Reserve remain in private ownership.

The 198-acre Brennan property is one of the largest remaining parcels in private ownership. Long-term protection of this entire parcel is vital because it supports high tortoise densities and provides quality habitat for a number of other desert species.

Acquisition and protection of this and other remaining in-holdings is essential to maintain the integrity and connectivity of the Reserve design. Recent wildfires have damaged neighboring parts of the Reserve, while this parcel was unburned and represents some of the best tortoise habitat remaining. Given the central location of these private lands in the Reserve, failure to acquire them would result in reduced connectivity of the tortoise population and would be a significant setback for tortoise recovery in this unique part of its range. These lands represent some of the most crucial habitat for the desert tortoise, and if not acquired, could be at risk of development. The risk is especially great considering that Washington County has been one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation.

Overall, the Section 6 funds requested under this proposal and matching funds would be used to purchase 90.79 acres of the Brennan parcel. Washington County will donate an additional 22.72 acres of the recently acquired Brennan parcel (see Table 1 in Approach, below), a value of $1,000,000. In addition, Mr. Brennan has committed to donate the remaining portions of his land (107.61 acres) if the full amount of this Section 6 grant is awarded (see Table 3 in Approach, below). In total, 221 acres, would be acquired or donated through or as a result of this project. This grant and donations to follow would complete the acquisition of the entire Brennan parcel.

Provide evidence about the nature of the problem and the need to address it. Identify the significance of the problem using a variety of data sources. For example, if a habitat restoration project is being proposed to benefit greater sage-grouse, describe the existing plant community characteristics that limit habitat value for greater sage-grouse and identify the changes needed for habitat improvement.

Provide an overall goal for the project and then provide clear, specific and measurable objectives (outcomes) to be accomplished by the proposed actions. If possible, tie to one or more of the public benefits UWRI is providing.

LOCATION: Justify the proposed location of this project over other areas, include publicly scrutinized planning/recovery documents that list this area as a priority, remote sensing modeling that show this area is a good candidate for restoration, wildlife migration information and other data that help justify this project's location.

TIMING: Justify why this project should be implemented at this time. For example, Is the project area at risk of crossing an ecological or other threshold wherein future restoration would become more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible.

List management plans where this project will address an objective or strategy in the plan. Describe how the project area overlaps the objective or strategy in the plan and the relevance of the project to the successful implementation of those plans. It is best to provide this information in a list format with the description immediately following the plan objective or strategy.

If applicable, detail how the proposed project will significantly reduce the risk of fuel loading and/or continuity of hazardous fuels including the use of fire-wise species in re-seeding operations. Describe the value of any features being protected by reducing the risk of fire. Values may include; communities at risk, permanent infrastructure, municipal watersheds, campgrounds, critical wildlife habitat, etc. Include the size of the area where fuels are being reduced and the distance from the feature(s) at risk.

Describe how the project has the potential to improve water quality and/or increase water quantity, both over the short and long term. Address run-off, erosion, soil infiltration, and flooding, if applicable.

Description of efforts, both completed and planned, to bring the proposed action into compliance with any and all cultural resource, NEPA, ESA, etc. requirements. If compliance is not required enter "not applicable" and explain why not it is not required.

Describe the actions, activities, tasks to be implemented as part of the proposed project; how these activities will be carried out, equipment to be used, when, and by whom.

Describe plans to monitor for project success and achievement of stated objectives. Include details on type of monitoring (vegetation, wildlife, etc.), schedule, assignments and how the results of these monitoring efforts will be reported and/or uploaded to this project page. If needed, upload detailed plans in the "attachments" section.

List any and all partners (agencies, organizations, NGO's, private landowners) that support the proposal and/or have been contacted and included in the planning and design of the proposed project. Describe efforts to gather input and include these agencies, landowners, permitees, sportsman groups, researchers, etc. that may be interested/affected by the proposed project. Partners do not have to provide funding or in-kind services to a project to be listed.

Detail future methods or techniques (including administrative actions) that will be implemented to help in accomplishing the stated objectives and to insure the long term success/stability of the proposed project. This may include: post-treatment grazing rest and/or management plans/changes, wildlife herd/species management plan changes, ranch plans, conservation easements or other permanent protection plans, resource management plans, forest plans, etc.

Potential for the proposed action to improve quality or quantity of sustainable uses such as grazing, timber harvest, biomass utilization, recreation, etc. Grazing improvements may include actions to improve forage availability and/or distribution of livestock.