Statement By Senator John McCain On U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Decision Not To List Sonoran Desert Tortoise As Endangered Species

Press Release

U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) released the following statement today on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) decision to not list the Sonoran Desert Tortoise as an endangered species:

"I applaud the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision not to list the Sonoran Desert Tortoise as a threatened and endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. This decision shows that state and federal collaboration can balance Arizona's continued economic growth with shared tortoise-management goals. A decision to list the tortoise as an endangered species would have imposed a restrictive regulatory framework across Arizona's rural and urban land base. Instead, federal and state stakeholders are collaborating on a conservation agreement that represents a more flexible and effective way to protect the tortoise. Last week, I spoke to USFWS Director Dan Ashe about this issue, and I'm expecting that he will keep Arizona's hard work in mind as he defends his agency's decision."

The USFWS made this decision after completing a 25-year-long analysis of the Sonoran Desert Tortoise in which it observed that the species has not experienced a significant reduction in population, with between 470,000 and 970,000 adult desert tortoises still living in an estimated 38,000 square mile-range in Arizona. Moreover, 17 federal and state agencies such as USFWS, the Arizona State Land Department, Arizona Game & Fish Department, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Department of Defense, Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Arizona Department of Transportation, previously collaborated on a Candidate Conservation Agreement (CCA), which promotes a cooperative effort by all agencies to effectively conserve the species without imposing any federal regulations.

Kurt Davis, Chairman of the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, also applauded the decision:

"As with all wildlife species in Arizona, conserving the Sonoran desert tortoise has been a priority for the Arizona Game and Fish Department and Commission. When the question of protecting the Sonoran desert tortoise was first proposed, the Arizona Game and Fish Department had 25 years of records that showed a robust stable population. These records, along with the Department's vigilant monitoring and research, were enough to keep this important species off the endangered species list. Once again as the most trusted, respected and credible source for wildlife conservation and information, it is the state wildlife agency's on-the-ground wildlife management expertise and science-driven conservation projects that have compelled a no listing decision."

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