Abstracts from the 1999 Symposium

UTAH I THE I DESERT TORTOISE COUNCIL ARIZONA NEVADA l I i I / + S v'LEI S % A|. w a CALIFORNIA PROCEEDINGS OF 1999 SYMPOSIUM DESERT TORTOISE COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS OF THE 1999 SYMPOSIUM A compilation of reports and papers presented at the twenty-fourth annual symposium of the Desert Tortoise Council, March 5-8, 1999 St. George, Utah PUBLICATIONS OF THE DESERT TORTOISE COUNCIL, INC. Members Non-members Proceedings of the 1976 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1977 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1978 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1979 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1980 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1981 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1982 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1983 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1984 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1985 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1986 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1987-91 Desert Tortoise Council Symposia $20,00 $20.00 Proceedings of the 1992 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1993 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1994 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1995 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1996 Desert Tortoise Council Symposium $10.00 $15.00 Proceedings of the 1997-98 Desert Tortoise Council Symposia $10.00 $15.00 Annotated Bibliog raphy of the Desert Tortoise, Gopherus agassizii $10.00 $15.00 Note: Please add $1.00 per copy to cover postage and handling. Foreign address add $3.00 per copy for surface mail; U.S. drafts only. Available from: Desert Tortoise Council, Inc. P.O. Box 3141 Wrightwood, CA 92397 U.S.A. These proceedings record the papers presented at the annual symposium of the Desert Tortoise Council. The Council, how ever, does not necessarily endorse the conclusions reached in the papers, nor can it attest to the validity or accuracy of the data Copyright © 2000 Desert Tortoise Council, Inc. ISSN 0191-3875 Desert Tortoise Council 1998-99 OmcERs Senior Co-Chair Katherine Zander Co-Chair Tim Duck Co-Chair-elect Mare Graff Recording Secretary Ed LaRue Corresponding Secretary Ed LaRue Treasurer Mike Coffeen 1998-99 BoARD MEMBERs Kristin Berry Ted Cordery Mark DePoy Tracy Goodlett Bob Keeran Ann McLuckie Glenn Stewart Robert Turner 1999 Awards Annual Award Frank Hoover Special Award Larry Foreman Editor & Layout Design Breck Bartholomew Assistant Editor Ann McLuckie Cover Design Suzanne Allan Contents Ecology and Management of Bromus tectorum Communities — James A. Young, Robert R. Blank, and William S. Longland . 1 —7 Variability in Phenology and Production of Desert Ephemerals: Implications for Predicting Resource Availability for Desert Tortoises — Paul R. Kemp and James F. Reynolds.......... 8 — 14 Regional Desert Tortoise Monitoring in the Upper Virgin River Recovery Unit — Ann M. McLuckie, Deborah L Harstad, Rick A. Fridell . 15-24 Maternal Behavior in Desert Tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) at Goffs, California — Brian T. Henen. 25-27 Facilitation and interference between annuals and shrubs in the Mojave Desert: An associa tion out of balance? — Claus Holzapfel and Bruce E. Mahall. 28 —30 Desert Tortoise Translocation: The effects of pre-release water availability — Kimberleigh J. Field, C. Richard Tracy, Philip A. Medica, Ronald W. Marlow, and P. Stephen Corn......,.... 30 —31 Reproduction inSonoran Desert Tortoises: 1998 Progress Report — Roy C. Averill-Murray and Christopher M. Klug. 31-34 Status of the Washington County Habitat Conservation Plan — March, 1999 Reed Harris 34-37 Abstracts from the 1999 Symposium Attributes of Desert Tortoise Populations within Selected Areas at the National Training Cen ter, Fort Irwin, California — Kristin H. Berry, Glenn Goodlett, Tracy Goodlett, and Steve Boland ........ 3 8 A Look at the Reproductive Ecology of the Desert Tortoise at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, 29 Palms, California — Curtis D. Bj urlin and John A. Bissonette .......... 38 — 39 Exotic Plant Species in Desert Tortoise Habitat — Matthew L Brooks and Lesley DeFalco. 39 — 40 Effects of Exotic Grasses via Wildfire on Desert Tortoises and their Habitat — Matthew L, Brooks, Todd C. Esque, and Cecil R. Schwalbe ..................... 40 —41 Development of a Qualitative Field Diagnostic Test for Specific Anti-Mycoplasma Antibodies in Blood of Tortoises. I. Rationale and Significance — Daniel R. Brown, Mary B. Brown, and Paul A. Klein. 41 The Search for Sources of Potential Toxicants in Desert Tortoises: Results of a Pilot Project Incorporating Surficial Materials and Plants from Three Areas in Southeastern California — Maurice A. Chaffee and Kristin H. Berry. 41-42 Status of the Northern & Eastern Colorado Desert Coordinated Management Plan — Dick Crowe and Genea Warner 42-43 Interactions Between Nitrogen and Exotic Species with Implications for Habitat Restoration Fred Edwards, Michael F. Allen, Thomas Zi nk, and Edith B. Allen. 4344 Home Range and Movements of Hillside Residing Desert Tortoises in the Western Mojave Desert — Ty J. Gardner 44 Invasive Species: A Longstanding Environmental Problem, A New Environmental Issue William P. Gregg. 44 —45 Reproductive Output of Female Central Asian Tortoises (Testudo horsfieMi) — Brian T. Henen, Ken A. Nagy, Xavier Bonnet, and Frederic LaGarde 44 —45 Characterization of Proteins Extracted from Shell Scutes of California Desert Tortoises, Gopherus agassizii — Bruce L Homer, Chen Li, Kristin H. Berry, and Elliott R. Jacobson 45 — 46 Mechanisms of Coexistence Among Desert Annual Plants: Implications for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics — Nancy Huntly . 46 Herpesvirus Infection by Tortoises — Elliott R. Jacobson. 46 —47 Growth Patterns of the Desert Tortoise in an East Mojave Population — Alice E. Karl ..... 47 — 48 West Mojave Plan: Status Report — Edward L LaRue, Jr. 48 Do The Physiological Strategies of Desert Annuals Influence Their Nutrient Composition and Hence Their Value to Desert Tortoises? — Olav T. Oftedal 48A9 Interrelationships Between Annual Plants and Desert Rodents — Mary V. Price ...................... 49 Habitat Reclamation at Yucca Mountain, Nevada — Von K. Winkel. 50 1998-1999 Status Report for the Desert Tortoise Council — Katherine Zander .......................... 50 Special Report Ord Mountain Pilot Study: Recommendations for Route Designation Desert Tortoise Council. 51 — 73+ map Ecology and Management of Bromus fectorum Communities JAMES A. YQUNG, RQBERT R. BLANR, AND WII.LIAM S. LONGLAND USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Reno, NV, 89512 Email; j [email protected] Abstract —Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is an exotic, self-invasive (establishes without direct human aid) annual that has invaded most plant communities in the Intermountain Area. It is now the dominant species on millions of hectares of formerly big sagebrush (ArtenIisia tridentata)/bunchgrass rangeland. Cheatgrass occurs, but usually is not the dominant annual grass, in the southern Great Basin and the warm deserts of the Southwest. Our purpose is to review several aspects of the ecology and management of cheatgrass, largely based upon the 40 plus years of experience our project has had with this annual grass. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is an exotic, self disturbed (Stewart and Hull, 1949). Cheatgrass became invasive annual that has become a component or out a self invasive species. This change for an occasional right dominant of millions of hectares of temperate ruderal species to a landscape wide, self invasive spe desert rangelands in the Intermountain Area. The late cies must have been due to widespread changes in the D. W. Billings (1990) considered cheatgrass to be the environment, adaptive changes in the weed itself, or a greatest cause of biotic impoverishment in the Inter combination of both. In a series of papers Daubenmire mountain Area. Cheatgrass is distributed throughout (e. g. 1940) clearly showed that cheatgrass is capable of the western United States and adjacent Canada and invading big sagebrush/bluebunch wheat grass Mexico. It occurs, but usually is not a dominant spe (Pseudoroegneria spicata)communities that were in high cies in portions of the warm deserts of the southern ecological condition and apparently never grazed by Great Basin and the Southwest. It first became estab domestic livestock. Under such conditions, the inva lished in the Intermountain Area in disturbed portions sion of cheatgrass is of little immediate ecological con of the big sagebrush (Arternisia tridentata)/bunchgrass sequences other than to provide a seed source in the zone (Stewart and Young, 1939; Yensen, 1981). Now advent the community suffers catastrophic disturbance. the distribution of this invasive species extends into By the time cheatgrass was well distributed in the big higher elevations in the adjacent pinyon (Pinus sp.)/ sagebrush zone, there were very few areas in high eco juniper (Juni perus)woodland zone and down into por logical condition. Much of the perennial grass portion tions of the salt desert vegetation in the lower eleva of the native plant communities had been severely de tion basins of the Great Basin (Young and Tipton, 1990). pressed, if not outright destroyed, by

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