OFF-ROADERS SUE OVER TORTOISE POLICY.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

SALT LAKE CITY - Utah-based off-road enthusiasts have sued the federal government, claiming a decade-long effort to protect tortoises by barring cattle, vehicles and other users from thousands of acres of desert isn't working.

David Hubbard, a California attorney for the off-road groups, said desert tortoise populations have continued to drop in the closed areas. He thinks it's proof that humans and their machines aren't to blame for the animal's decline.

``We think you can still have mountain biking, cattle and vehicles on the land because when you have these human activities it is easier to manage for the species,'' said Brian Hawthorne, director of Utah Shared Access Alliance, an off-road vehicle group.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Utah this week against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is responsible for setting standards for protecting desert tortoises from the Antelope Valley to Utah.

The lawsuit claims the real reason the tortoise is dying off is the spread of a respiratory tract disease. The off-roaders want the government to focus on curing that disease, rather than barring vehicle access.

Another nonhuman reason for the declining tortoise population is the fact that ravens eat baby tortoises, the lawsuit contends.

Some environmental advocates aren't so sure.

``I'd be willing to bet my next paycheck that the tortoise population certainly isn't going to benefit by getting run over by off-road vehicles or losing its food source,'' said Heidi McIntosh, conservation director with Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. ``This is not a happy marriage.''

The government has yet to respond to the lawsuit.

The desert tortoise, found in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts of California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, was listed as threatened in 1989.

Since then, the federal government has designated about 6 million acres as critical habitat for the species and has spent more than $100 million on tortoise recovery.

Government agencies have bought hundreds of thousands of acres of California desert as tortoise sanctuaries. They have restricted livestock grazing and off-road vehicles on additional thousands of acres. Even tiny fences have been installed along desert highways to keep tortoises from being run over.

But experts say there's no doubt the tortoises are still dying off, in some places very rapidly. In some areas, tortoise populations are barely 10 percent of what they were even two decades ago, and tortoise shells and skeletons outnumber live tortoises 10 to 1.

Analysts in the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said in a report last year that the government must focus more research on determining whether restrictions and other protective actions are effective.