The MSCP - part of Pima County's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan - makes a streamlined ESA process possible thru a commitment to protect, manage, monitor and report on important habitats, landscapes and species in order to mitigate/offset impacts in other areas.
Some details from the MSCP FAQs (retrieved 4/25/2019):
As new development occurs some species listed in the Endangered Species Act will be impacted. Such impacts, whether they occur intentionally or unintentionally, may be illegal unless the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) approves a plan to mitigate for these impacts. This approval requires the Service to issue a ‘Section 10 permit’, so called for its reference to the section of the Endangered Species Act.
Since 1999, Pima County and Pima County Flood Control District has been acquiring open space or flood prone lands through voter-approved bond programs. Many of these lands will be used to fulfill mitigation land requirements of the Section 10 permit. ... The amount of open space land the County currently has, along with some of the flood prone land owned by the District, appears to be sufficient to provide mitigation for at least the first 20 years of the Section 10 permit.
The page above is from the Appendices of the 2018 report and shows markings used to identify individual Desert Tortoises that were counted during surveys. About the Pima County's Tortoise Monitoring:
The Sonoran desert tortoise (Gopherus morafkai) is a well-loved, iconic species in Sonoran desert ecosystems. The species is known to occur broadly across much of western and southern Arizona, as well as parts of northwestern Mexico, in upper and lower Sonoran Desert ecosystems. It ranges in elevation from near sea level at the Colorado River to over 1,500 m in southeastern Arizona. Pima County’s Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan identified the Sonoran desert tortoise as a species of conservation concern due to its ecological significance. Additionally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently decided that federal protections for this species was not warranted (USFWS 2015), in part due to the strong and long-standing commitments that land managers have invested and continue to invest in the study and management of this species. The County’s Multi-species Conservation Plan (MSCP) ensures that the County remains in compliance with its Section 10 incidental take permit that it has been issued from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As part of the MSCP, Pima County has agreed to monitor Sonoran Desert tortoise (hereafter tortoise) populations on County conservation lands.
Source: 2018 MSCP Annual Report Pdf and 2018 MSCP Appendices Pdf downloaded from the Pima County Multi-species Conservation Plan Page.
Previous Years:
