Tortoises on the way down are bouncing back thanks to a desert conservation effort

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Sunday. I’m your host, Andrew J. Campa. Here’s what you need to know to start your weekend:

• Marines are saving endangered desert tortoises.
• Aliso Canyon likely to stay open for years; residents outraged.
• Who is the politician at the center of the latest Chinese influence scandal?
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper.

With a little help, desert tortoises are blooming in Twentynine Palms

From about mid-May to mid-September, the highs in the sun-soaked desert town of Twentynine Palms rarely dip below 90 degrees. The city is located in the Mojave Desert, about 140 miles east of Los Angeles and serves as a gateway to Joshua Tree National Park.

It’s an area where the Marine Corps., known for its toughness, established an Air Ground Task Force Training Command and Air Guard Combat Center.

Around the base the sounds of rumbling tanks and live explosives along with the sparse desert environment can paint a rough picture.

Yet, in that seemingly hostile environment, there is kindness.

It happens daily when fledgling, vulnerable desert tortoises exit their burrows upon detecting the footsteps of conservationist Brian Henen.

He tosses them handfuls of bok choy and snap peas. The feed will help the desert dwellers grow from their current stature — about the size of a deck of playing cards and easy pickings for predators — to fully grown and sturdy adults.

It’s a turtles boot camp that’s helping the tortoise survive and ultimately thrive in a habitat that would be permanently damaged without their presence.

Save the tortoise

My colleague Alex Wigglesworth detailed this survival story from the Marine base, site of the Tortoise Research and Captive Rearing Site.

The tortoises live in a sheltered habitat ringed by barbed wire and draped in netting.

The setup is designed to protect them from ravens, coyotes and other predators, along with the other harms a Marine base might present.

Some call this place Tortoise Gitmo, after the U.S. Navy’s Guantanamo Bay base and prison camp in Cuba.

Officially it’s called the Tortoise Research and Captive Rearing Site, and since it was established in 2005 it has helped scientists learn how to protect a species that’s threatened by human encroachment, disease and climate change.

What goes on at the site?

Initially, biologists gathered eggs from wild females and raised the hatchlings until they were hardy enough to stand a chance against predators and drought, in a process known as head-starting.

The facility got an influx of new tenants in 2017, when the military relocated tortoises to make way for a controversial expansion of the base’s training grounds. Biologists decided to head-start about 550 young tortoises that were taken from expansion areas.

Then, starting a couple of years ago, Henen’s team began gathering, incubating and hatching eggs from the relocated adult tortoises to study whether they were breeding with their new neighbors. Rather than release the hatchlings into the wild, where they were unlikely to survive, they decided to head-start them as well.

In desert tortoise head-starting programs, biologists use radio transmitters to monitor wild females and portable X-ray machines to determine when they’re pregnant. They bring those females inside enclosures to lay their eggs, then release them. The hatchlings are reared in captivity until they reach a certain length — Twentynine Palms uses a threshold of 110 millimeters, or about 4 inches long, which can take between seven and nine years — and then rereleased, typically with radio transmitters to monitor their health and movements.

Threats to the tortoise are everywhere

Desert tortoises were once so plentiful that people driving through the Mojave would take them home. But in some patches of California desert, their numbers have dropped by up to 96% since the 1970s, according to study plots monitored by Kristin Berry, supervisory research wildlife biologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Western Ecological Research Center.

The Marines are hardly the only threat to tortoises. Roads and highways have carved up previously wide-open stretches of desert into parcels that are in some cases too small to allow for the breeding and genetic diversity needed to sustain their population health. A warming climate has dried up the precipitation needed to sustain them in some places.

Livestock not native to the desert have grazed and trampled the plants tortoises like to eat, spreading unpalatable nonnative grasses in their wake. Power lines have added miles of resting perches for ravens, allowing them to more easily spot young tortoises.

The desert would be forever changed without the tortoises

“The desert tortoise is considered a keystone species, which means that they have a disproportionate effect on the entire ecosystem,” says Henen, a civilian who heads the conservation branch of the base’s Environmental Affairs Division.

The tortoises pockmark the desert floor with burrows that other animals use for shelter, and disperse the seeds of native plants in their waste. “They’re influencing what else can exist on the landscape,” Henen said.

For more on the desert tortoise’s progress, check out the full article.

The week’s biggest stories

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Environment and housing

• Aliso Canyon likely to stay open for years under closure plan; residents outraged
• California e-bike voucher program flooded with almost 100,000 applications in just 45 minutes.
• Is a 1976 drainage plan to blame for 2023 Rolling Hills Estates landslide? Homeowners’ lawsuit says yes.
• Battle over luxury Verdugo Mountains housing development spills into court.
• California board backs rules aimed at protecting workers from deadly silicosis.

Crime, courts and policing

• They were locked up 17 years ago for a murder. L.A.’s new district attorney is setting them free.
• Southern California men indicted in alleged $22-million crypto fraud case.
• Social media influencer sued for wrongful death in Malibu Fourth of July crash.
• LAPD investigates scores of bomb threats a year. Was one sent by the deputy mayor?
• Video of jailer appearing to slam inmate into wall sparks calls for DOJ investigation.

Travel and weather

• TSA officers stunned by ‘extremely concerning’ discovery in woman’s carry-on at LAX.
• ‘Messy’ atmospheric storms in California could slam holiday travel: What to expect.
• ‘Leave bright and early:’ Southern Californians brace for crowded airports, freeways during holiday travel.

Holiday gift ideas and advice

• If your kid wants skin-care gifts for the holidays, here are some risks to consider.
• Opinion: To give great gifts, stop thinking like a gift giver.
• How parents tackle the truth behind Santa without ruining the Christmas magic.

More big stories

• Starbucks baristas in L.A. and other cities go on strike over elusive contract.
• Party City to shut down after nearly 40 years in business.
• Netflix will stream 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
• Starting next year you could be fined for parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk in L.A.
• Military helicopter catches fire, makes emergency landing at Camp Pendleton.
• Mother and daughter attacked, robbed over parking space dispute at Citadel Outlets.

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Column One

Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and long-form journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week:

(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

The two racers idled in their vehicles near the starting line, one behind the other, waiting for their last chance to blast down the drag strip at Irwindale Speedway. They were bound by a love for speed — but that’s about all they had in common.

More great reads

• Column: MacArthur Park needs a champion and defender — right now.
• Tensions brew over trans athletes at Riverside high school, as conservative protests grow.
• Plans to transform an iconic San Francisco highway into a park ignite recall furor.
• How to revive California’s downtowns? This Assembly member is looking for answers.
• Column: Hey politicians and pundits, stop conflating ‘Latino’ with ‘immigrant.’

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your weekend

(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Gilbert Flores / Variety via Getty Images)

Going out

• 🍹 Former SNL star Kyle Mooney offers some snack ideas for his Sunday Funday, including margaritas and cauliflower wings in Eagle Rock.
• 🎁 Not everyone is done with holiday shopping. So here are 10 gifts and experiences L.A. Times staffers are giving from the 2024 Gift Guide.
• 🍽️ Money is tight. Here are 20 of the most affordable picks from the 101 Best Restaurants in L.A. list.
• 🎭 Sutton Foster delights in Carol Burnett’s role in ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ at the Ahmanson.

Staying in

• 📺 Magical Santas, meet-cutes and dueling Donna Kelce roles: Take a look at Hallmark’s best holiday movies.
• 📙 Author Kevin Prufer’s dystopian novel “Sleepaway” captures a defining feeling of our age: anxiety
• 🧑‍🍳 What’s the secret to great babka? It could be the kvetching, or the chocolate. Here’s one amazing recipe.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, Sudoku, word search and arcade games.

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

(Chiara Xie)

They met at a boba shop in West Hollywood. When he stepped into the shop’s fluorescent light, his bright blue eyes, lightly lined with black eyeliner, met hers. He pulled her into his tall, lean frame, and she inhaled the scent of him — something akin to a chimney. For the next five months, they had a casual arrangement that was as exhilarating as it was confusing. To say she was drawn to him would be an understatement, but would this infatuation continue, or was there more substance beyond the bedroom?

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Carlos Lozano, news editor

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