The Tortoise and the Glare

The Scoop: Who is that masked man and why does he think a million glaring acres of desert solar power plants could be the desert tortoise's worst enemy? Long-time desert dweller and tortoise advocate Kevin Emmerich has a special connection to the humble tortoise. Besides being former National Park Service rangers, Kevin and his wife Laura Cunningham are advocates for desert creatures of all kinds. They are the owners of what they all the Atomic Toad Ranch, near Beatty, Nevada. The ranch gets its name from being home to the rare Amargosa toad and its close proximity to the controversial proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. But about those tortoises...

LarryO’: Hello Kevin. You there yet?? Looks like you're online

Kevin: Hi, just got here

LarryO’: Great. Ready to start?

Kevin: Yes

LarryO’: Okay. So we're talking about desert tortoises.

  Why are they important to you, personally.

Kevin: They represent a healthy, living desert ecosystem. They also have a very interesting way of adapting to the unique conditions of the Mojave Desert.

LarryO’: What are some examples of those adaptations?
Kevin: Tortoises are not exactly able to take the heat and cold. They seem to have made a success out of timing. While the desert can see extreme heat, tortoises are usually not too active in temperatures above 85 F. Being cold blooded, they must regulate body temperature. They spend most of the time under the ground. They have very strong front and hind legs that allow them to dig burrows that can sometimes be up to 6 feet deep. They use these burrows to hibernate in when winter temperatures get very cold. It seems as though they are a very long lived species that have been able to adapt to many different climatic periods over time.

LarryO’:  So is it hard to observe tortoises?

Kevin: Well, I suppose that would depend on the observer's timing. It is said that they spend about 80 percent of their lives under the ground. While that sound like a lot, they still are above ground much of the time during the spring for feeding, mating, etc. If you know what the optimal conditions are and are familiar with the habitat, you may get lucky.

LarryO’: And how do they serve as indicators for the Mojave Desert?

Kevin: They seem to have learned how to survive and sometimes thrive in a narrow margin of optimal conditions including temperature, food availability (flowers, grasses and other herbaceous plants, soil conditions for digging, and rain fall.

LarryO’: So they are threatened by what sorts of things going on in the Mojave today?
Kevin: The Mojave and Sonoran Deserts are more crowded than they have ever been. People are using the land for many purposes. As people need more space to live and recreate, they tend to encroach upon the habitat that many plants and animals live in a delicate balance with. Urban sprawl and development requires space. Large strip mines for mining remove soils and plants. Off highway vehicle recreation degrades habitat. Cattle and sheep grazing on public lands damage habitat and reduce feeding material. Military base expansion. Ironically, the latest threat to desert habitat is the speculation and potential development for large renewable energy projects. In California Deserts alone, renewable energy developers would like to scrape up over 1 million acres of desert habitat to harvest the sun's energy. While this supposed to be good for the climate, it will destroy tortoise habitat. It would be better utilized on roof tops and on previously disturbed lands.

LarryO’: Uh-oh. Some green energy isn't so green after all.

  Why do they want to scrape the desert rather than use rooftops?
Kevin: Sadly, no it is not. There seems to be a culture of having a large centralized energy source by one or a few companies and this includes transporting goods such as energy over hundreds or even thousands of miles from the power company to the user. Public lands are cheap and inexpensive for energy companies to use. It would take longer to negotiate use on private properties.

LarryO’: Time for a paradigm shift! You used to take care of tortoises, right?

Kevin: Yes, we had a few, Baja being the most famous. Our last pet was one we adopted but there was a freak accident. She somehow got an ant in the back of her mouth and the bite killed her. Never saw that before. They are not the easiest pets to have. They seem to be "Born to be Wild"...

LarryO’: Isn't there something about them being un-releasable after coming in contact with humans?

Kevin: Yeah. It is illegal to take a wild one and it is illegal to release a captive into the wild. Many tortoises are just picked up by some people or end up being displaced by development. Some of those individuals are taken by states and made available for adoption. Releasing a captive into the wild can spread a domestic respiratory disease of unknown origin to wild populations. It is very contagious and can drastically reduce wild populations.

LarryO’: You mentioned that Baja was famous. How?

Kevin: When I was a park ranger in Death Valley, I used to bring him into the visitor center and use him as a prop for interpretive talks. He didn't seem to mind as I would reward him with a collard green or two.

LarryO’: Didn't they have a name for you then? Tortoise man or something?

Kevin: Yes, some people did call me that. After I left it was reported to me that some people wanted to know what happened to the "tortoise ranger". I didn't mind that name. It made my co-workers jealous.

LarryO’: Hah! So today are their any organizations that work to protect tortoises?

Kevin: Yes, the Desert Tortoise Preserve Committee is an organization that buys land and preserves it for habitat mostly in the West Mojave Desert. The Desert Tortoise Council is an organization that really focuses more on academic research. There are also local adoption groups in California, Arizona and Nevada that help people adopt captives rather than remove them from the wild.

LarryO’: The take-home message, I guess, is to leave them alone and respect their habitat?

Kevin: I think that is a very good message.

This interview took place on Feb. 1, 2009