DESERT TORTOISE STRUGGLES FOR SURVIVAL
                          AGAINST UNLIKELY FOES

                   APRIL 1988 - DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE

     The desert tortoise that lives on the Utah/Arizona border, was listed
as threatened by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife service in 1980, and has seen a
50% reduction in population since that time to about 150 individuals.
Competition from livestock grazing is lowering nutrient availability
and producing the decline.

Despite these recent findings the Fish & Wildlife Service may be about to 
permit the B.L.M to increase grazing on the critical habitat of the 
Beaver Dam Slope area by issuing an opinion of "no-jeopardy" on the 
B.L.M.'s latest grazing plan.  Fish and Wildlife a year earlier was about 
to issue a "jeopardy" finding, but bowed to political pressure.  

Concerned persons, please urge the Fish and Wildlife Service to save the
Desert Tortoise by forbidding increased grazing in the critical Beaver
Dam slope habitat of Utah.  Ask that immediate steps be taken to ensure
adequate forage for the desert tortoise.

Write:
Frank H. Dunkle                    Bob Ruesink
Director                           Office of Endangered Species
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service       USFWS
Department of Interior             1745 W. 1700 S.
C Street between 18th & 19th NW    Salt Lake City, Utah 84104
Washington, D.C. 20240