West Mojave Plan FEIR/S - Desert Managers Group

3.3.2.5.3 Older and Newer Die-off RegionsA total of 1,033 carcasses were found during the 1998-2002 sign count surveys. Adetailed carcass observation analysis is presented in Appendix L. In the following discussion,carcasses are described relative to how recently the tortoises died: “older” refers to tortoisesdying more than four years prior to being found; “newer” refers to those dying within four yearsof being found 14 . Similarly, “older die-off regions” are comprised of older carcasses, and “newerdie-off regions” consist of newer carcasses, although there is some overlap, as described.With three exceptions, all older die-off regions occur in the Fremont-Kramer DWMA.All older die-off regions, including the three in the Superior-Cronese, are located north ofHighway 58 (Map 3-13). Newer regions are scattered throughout the older ones. Highway 58bisects two substantially larger new areas. In the Superior-Cronese DWMA, there are threesmall older regions, but most carcasses and regions are of recent origin. Three broadly spacednewer regions occur within and adjacent to the Ord-Rodman DWMA. None was observed in thePinto Mountain DWMA, which is not further discussed.Fremont-Kramer DWMA: The seven die-off regions within the Fremont-Kramer arecharacterized in Table 3-21. Regions and subregions are identified alpha-numerically in thesubsequent tables and throughout the text, and are displayed on Map 3-13.14 Both sign count and distance sampling data are included in subsections describing locations of 12 symptomaticanimals and 142 carcasses where the cause of death was given. As in other places, summaries include only squaremiles surveyed (i.e., number of transects), not the sizes of polygons. For example, there are 63 mi 2 within theDTNA die-off region (i.e., Region FK1 on Map 3-13), but only 50 mi 2 were surveyed. So, all data and subsequentdiscussion are relative to the 50 mi 2 , not 63 mi 2 .Chapter 3 3-113