Raven Management Work Group
1. PURPOSE and BACKGROUND:
The Desert Managers Group (DMG) Raven Management Work Group is implementing a plan to reduce predation by the common raven (Corvus corax) on the federally threatened desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) in the California desert. During the past few decades, the population of the common raven has increased substantially in the California desert, primarily in response to human-provided subsidies of food, water, and nest sites. The common raven is a known predator of desert tortoises, particularly hatchlings and juveniles. The Revised Recovery Plan for the Mojave Population of the Desert Tortoise identifies reducing predation on the desert tortoise as a recovery task.
2. MISSION:
To carry out the preferred alternative outlined in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Environmental Assessment to Implement a Desert Tortoise Recovery Task: Reduce Common Raven Predation on the Desert Tortoise. This recovery action is focused within desert tortoise conservation areas (e.g., desert tortoise critical habitat, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs), Desert Wildlife Management Areas (DWMAs), research and other special management areas), and raven concentration areas (e.g., landfills) and the urban-wildland interface.
In 2002,
USGS completed a report on ways to minimize predation by ravens on
desert tortoises (external link to pdf).
Raven Environmental Assessment - Final
Finding of No Significant Impact - Reduce Raven Predation on the Desert Tortoise
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