Long before Southern Nevada built its winding highways, desert tortoises roamed freely without consequence. For these federally protected animals, crossing the street without a dedicated path could mean a death sentence.

Along a 34-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 93 near Coyote Springs, fencing and underground tortoise crossings will allow for more safe passage.

“We see substantial road mortality and near-misses in this area,” said Kristi Holcomb, Southern Nevada biological supervisor at the Nevada Department of Transportation. “By adding the fencing, we’ll be able to stop the bleed.”

The federal Department of Transportation awarded Nevada’s transportation agency a $16.8 million grant to build 61 wildlife crossings and 68 miles of fencing along the highway. Clark and Lincoln counties, as well as private companies such as the Coyote Springs Investment group, will fund the project in total.

Under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government listed Mojave desert tortoises as threatened in 1990. The project area includes the last unfenced portion of what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers to be the desert tortoise’s “critical habitat.”

In Clark County, some keep desert tortoises as pets, adoptions for which are only authorized through one Nevada nonprofit, the Tortoise Group. Environmentalists in the area have long worried that sprawling solar projects may have an adverse effect on tortoise populations. As many as 1,000 tortoises per square mile inhabited the Mojave Desert before urban development, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

Crossings prevent inbreeding

One major reason that connecting critical habitat across a highway is paramount is to prevent inbreeding, Holcomb said.

“When you build a highway down the middle of a desert tortoise population, they become shy about crossing the highway,” Holcomb said. “By installing tortoise fences, we’ll give the tortoise population a chance to recover.”

Desert tortoises tend to walk parallel to the fences, which will lead them to the crossings they need to go to the other side. Promoting genetic diversity is one way different tortoise populations can be stabilized, Holcomb said.

The Nevada Department of Transportation doesn’t have a set timeline, and the project will need to go through an expedited federal review process to ensure full consideration of environmental effects.

“Be mindful, not only of tortoises that might be on the roadway, but also of our impacts on tortoises,” Holcomb added.

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.

A 1-inch butterfly that can only be found beside hot springs near the Nevada-Oregon border will soon be awarded federal protections under the Endangered Species Act, the law meant to protect plants and animals at risk of extinction.

The bleached sandhill skipper’s largest population is found at the Baltazor Hot Spring — a spring that’s located next to what is planned to become a geothermal energy plant.

Some environmentalists worry that the 84-acre plant operated by Ormat, which has received all required permits from the Bureau of Land Management, could alter the flow of nearby groundwater. Ormat’s media representative did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The final environmental assessment for the project does mention the bleached sandhill skipper, with some facilities moved to accommodate the habitat. The BLM ultimately declared that any impacts to the species would be “unlikely and minor,” and Ormat committed to doing assessments of the species every year for the first five years of the project.

“The wetlands these butterflies need to survive will dry up and blow away unless we can protect the water that sustains them,” Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Endangered species protections can help ensure this rare butterfly is still here for future generations.”

Only about 1,000 of the butterflies were found in recent annual surveys, according to the nonprofit conservation organization. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to list the species in 2012.

With the proposal for protections on Tuesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service began a 60-day public comment period. Within a year, a final rule awarding protections will be issued.

In Southern Nevada, the Mount Charleston blue butterfly is another species that has similar federal protections.

The new proposed protections are paramount for the longstanding fight to protect rural Nevada’s water, according to Donnelly.

“The bleached sandhill skipper needs the same thing to survive that we do: water,” Donnelly said. “With these endangered species protections, we aren’t just protecting charming little butterflies and their wetland habitat. We’re protecting the water that sustains all life in the desert, including our own.”

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.