Loop Trail project brings biologist to town to help protect desert tortoises

Fred Couzens/VIEWShawn Lindey, a 33-year-old biologist from California, checks for desert tortoises Dec. 10 during construction of Segment 5 of the River Mountain Loop Trail. Advertisement

If there's a need to find or keep tabs on the whereabouts of desert tortoises, Shawn Lindey is the man for the job.

The 33-year-old biologist, who lives in Three Rivers, Calif., just outside the boundaries of Sequoia National Park, is trained to find the presence of all sorts of endangered, threatened or sensitive species, including the desert tortoise.

He's currently on hiatus from his job along the construction route of Segment 5 of the River Mountain Loop Trail because tortoises are now in hibernation until March or April, but he expects to be back in action this spring. Work on Segment 5 started in September.

"The only thing that would bring me out is a big rain or that type of weather," Lindey said.

Still, it's a job he likes and doesn't complain about since it takes him away from his mountain home among the pine trees a majority of the year.

"I like being outside," said the 1999 graduate of Auburn University in Alabama, who majored in wildlife science with a focus on herpetology, or the study of snakes. "I live out of my truck close to 200 days a year. It's my kind of fun, but it is what it is."

Once the construction job site is defined, Lindey goes to work.

"We started out doing a pre-construction survey of the site and then determined what the zone of influence (or the area to be on the lookout for tortoises) is, which can be as much as 100 feet either side of the right of way. We check for the major signs of the tortoise, including tracks, carcasses and checking burrows for scat," which is tortoise fecal matter.

The darker the scat, Lindey explained, the fresher it is, which indicates a tortoise has been at that burrow recently.

As part of the Segment 5 project to build a two-mile, 10-foot-wide asphalt path from Railroad Pass east to Yucca Street, Eldorado Rock Inc., which was awarded the $987,400 contract, was required to purchase nearly 22,000 feet of aluminum wire fence to be used for tortoise control at a cost of $53,800.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added the desert tortoise to the federal list of endangered species in 1990. Protection under the law is given to desert tortoises in California, Southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and in Arizona north of the Grand Canyon. The desert tortoise has a life span of about 80 years.

"I go up and down the whole project to check the fence," Lindey said. "I'll walk it two or three times a week to make sure it's in place. A portion of it was washed out after the Thanksgiving rains, so we had to repair it."

While much of the trail work is being done on relatively flat land where he's yet to find a live tortoise, Lindey said the area, which is much different than the desert floor in the Boulder City Conservation Easement, is suited for their presence.

"Tortoises love the hills and the bajadas, or the slopes that go up into the hills," he said as he looked northward toward the Cascata Golf Course property. "They also love the rocks."

While many construction projects in and around Boulder City do not require the hiring of biologists to monitor desert tortoises, the loop trail construction does because it uses federal funds in an area known for having tortoise habitat.

The decision to hire a biologist was made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, adding another $25,000 onto the contract, and that price could go higher, according to city Engineering Technician Gary Zupanic.

"It could be as much as another $80,000, depending on the length of the project, but we won't know until it's done," Zupanic said.

Lindey, who works with his partner, Rich Crawford, in their Durango, Colo.-based environmental consulting firm, jumped into environmental monitoring in 2000 and has devoted himself solely to tortoises since 2005.

His biggest job so far has been at Fort Irwin, an Army training center near Barstow, Calif.

"They're expanding the base down there, so I've been there off and on for the past three years," Lindey said. "While I was there, I identified at least 1,000 tortoises."

Lindey, while a biologist at heart, also can take on the role of a police officer of sorts.

"Yes, I can come in and stop a project if there's tortoise discovered inside the fence line," he said. "If I find one, I'll put my gloves on and pick it up and release it a safe distance from the job site."

The U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 protects the desert tortoise by not allowing people to "harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such activity." Violation is punishable by a civil fine of up to $25,000, or a criminal penalty of up to $50,000 in fines or up to one year in jail or both.

Contact Boulder City View reporter Fred Couzens at fcouzens@viewnews.com or 279-5133.