Desert Tortoise Habitat Conservation Plan Expansion Act, Washington County, Utah
This bill directs the Department of the Interior to amend and renew the Desert Tortoise Habitat Conservation Plan, Washington County, Utah, and approve such amendment and renew such plan and the permit that was issued for such plan under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), for a 25-year period.
Interior must amend the resource management plans for the Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area, the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area, and the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, Zone 6, and shall seek to acquire those lands through exchange or by purchase or donation.
Interior shall manage the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, Zone 6, as a land bank to provide mitigation credits for future disturbances of the reserve, including utility disturbances and the construction of the Northern Transportation Corridor.
In the permit extended by the ESA, Interior shall credit Washington County a mitigation credit (1) for the tortoises protected on nonfederal lands in Zone 6; and (2) for those tortoises successfully translocated and surviving, based on survivorship and juvenile recruitment estimates.
The Red Cliffs National Conservation Area shall consist of approximately 45,000 acres of public and nonfederal land in Washington County, Utah.
Interior shall recognize on federally managed lands a 150 foot-wide transportation and utility corridor through the Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area.