CADIZ SETS ASIDE LAND FOR A DESERT TORTOISE PRESERVE

Cadiz Inc. agreed in March to set aside up to 7,400 acres of its 45,000 acres of land in the Mojave Desert as a land bank for the desert tortoise. Cadiz’s Fenner Valley Desert Tortoise Conservation Bank is located near the Mojave National Preserve and the Nevada border in an area designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as Desert Tortoise Critical Habitat; the land bank will be managed by San Diego Zoo Global. Land banks, such as the Fenner Conservation Bank, sell credits to entities whose projects, such as solar and wind farms, negatively impact desert tortoise habitats. Environmental activists expressed concern that the land bank will not mitigate the damage that will be caused by the Cadiz water project, in which the company plans to pump at least 5,000 acre-feet of water annually from an underground aquifer to a water district in Orange County. One acre-foot is enough to supply one home with water for a year. Cadiz CEO Scott Slater said, “Cadiz has long been committed to sustainable and holistic management of its land and water resources and we are pleased that we can provide for the long-term protection of the desert tortoise—a vital desert species.”