Bill Bennett: “As the Chairman knows, I am deeply troubled that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management…”

“As the Chairman knows, I am deeply troubled that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and other federal agencies have moved very quickly to impose the land use controls recommended in the Recovery Plan, but have failed to undertake the basic tasks called for in that document to determine whether those land use controls are truly appropriate and are proving to be effective. I am speaking of three tasks: the desert tortoise monitoring that the Plan called 'crucial to determining if desert tortoise populations are stationary, declining, or increasing'; the desert tortoise population estimations that the Plan stated would be made every three to five years; and the Plan's reassessment that also was to be conducted every three to five years.”