The Brief

Spotting a Mojave Desert tortoise is increasingly difficult in the American Southwest. The tortoises, with their unmistakable domed patterned shells, live in California, parts of Nevada, Arizona and northwestern Mexico. But they have lost habitat over the decades to encroaching development. They're also at risk from disease and climate change, all of which threaten their existence.

In four out of the five primary regions where Mojave Desert tortoises can be found, some estimates show that around 90% of tortoises have disappeared since 1984.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife classified the Mojave Desert tortoise as threatened in 1989. A year later, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the tortoise as threatened. But California has taken measures a step further this year by declaring the tortoise as endangered under the state's Endangered Species Act. That designation means the tortoises are likely to go extinct if they are not managed properly.

The state agency's spokesperson, Krysten Kellum, said in an email that the status change could increase the likelihood that state, federal and resource management agencies will prioritize and distribute more funds toward protection and recovery actions.

"The uplisting highlights the urgency of tortoise conservation needs," Kellum wrote.

A six-month-old Mojave Desert Tortoise is examined by wildlife biologist.

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Earlier this year, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, fired 420 USFW probationary staff. Nearly another 300 took the Trump administration's deferred resignation offer. The administration has also proposed cutting the budgets of the USFWS, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service. Those agencies are all tasked with managing endangered and threatened species on federal lands, including the desert tortoise.

Garrett Peterson, a spokesperson for the USFWS, said in an emailed statement that the agency remains committed to fulfilling the mission of conserving fish, wildlife, and natural resources for the American people. But the agency could "not comment on personnel matters or on Congressional deliberations regarding appropriations."

Kristina Drake used to lead the Desert Tortoise Recovery Office for the USFWS. She signed the administration's deferred resignation letter in the spring. Drake says she doesn't anticipate any additional federal funding to support the tortoise — a species that's survived in the desert for at least 15 million years.

Nonetheless, nonprofits like the Mojave Desert Land Trust, located in the town of Joshua Tree, and others remain steadfast in wanting to protect and preserve the desert tortoise and its habitat.

And on a warm early morning summer day, Patrick Emblidge and Clay Noss with the Mojave Desert Land Trust, are hopeful they can catch a glimpse of a desert tortoise. To do that, they're searching for holes that tortoises make, often called burrows, in a canyon near Joshua Tree, where the town's namesake tree flourishes near desert flora and grasses.

It's difficult to find a desert tortoise because they spend the majority of their time underground. And they are rare, explains Emblidge. "They're at serious risk of going extinct  and it's terribly unjust."

A desert tortoise crosses a road while cars drive in the opposite lane. There's no single thing that has contributed to the tortoise downturn. Vehicle collisions, habitat encroachment and climate change are among the many factors.

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'Death from a thousand cuts'

Since being listed as a threatened species more than 35 years ago, tortoise numbers have continued to dwindle. Ed LaRue, who's on the board of directors for the Desert Tortoise Council, a group that focuses on the species' survival, says it took five years for California to review data to move the tortoise from threatened to endangered earlier this year.

"The state's determination was in California, the tortoise is worse off now than it was when it was formally listed back in 1989," LaRue says. "So, even though there are a few places where you can go and see them, at a population level, they're still declining across the board."

That's despite the existence of five recovery areas for the Mojave Desert tortoise in the Southwest. They include the Upper Virgin River, Northeastern Mojave, Eastern Mojave, Western Mojave and Eastern Colorado.

There's no single issue that has contributed to the tortoise downturn, says Cameron Barrows, who studies deserts at the University of California, Riverside. He and many scientists describe the tortoises' decline as "death from a thousand cuts." That's because they face multiple threats, including off-road vehicles, predators, drought, and even military bases.

Then there's climate change.

" Climate change is one of those things, and it's not minor at all," Barrows says. "It's a very important aspect of what's going on with tortoises."

Human-caused climate change makes temperatures hotter and droughts last longer. Jeff Lovich, a retired scientist who researched tortoises at the U.S. Geological Survey for over 30 years, says higher temperatures contribute to the sex determination of tortoise hatchlings.

During California's long drought that lasted from 2012 to 2016, Lovich conducted a study that showed a big decline in female tortoises. That's because when female tortoises lay eggs, they lose water and protein. Drought exacerbates this, ultimately affecting the population's survival.

" The eggs are about the size of a ping pong ball," Lovich says. "If females are doing that during a drought, it's gonna put them in life-threatening situations, and we think we documented that with their high mortality during that epic drought."

Tortoises build between seven to 17 burrows underground per year. When they get tired of their burrow, they move to another area and dig a new spot.

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A keystone species

Some conservationists call tortoises "ecosystem engineers" because they build between seven to 17 burrows underground per year.

When tortoises tire of their burrow, they abandon them and relocate. Lovich says that's when other critters like snakes, birds and small mammals move in.

"If you took the tortoise away, you would take away that service that they provide for other species," he explains.

In the Mojave Desert, Emblidge and Noss study a burrow that's too big to be a tortoise's home. It's shaped like a half-moon – flat on the bottom and domed on the top – and sandwiched under a large boulder. They come to the same conclusion.

"Yeah, it's a tortoise burrow, it's just so big," Emblidge says. "It looks like it could have been modified by a fox or a coyote."

But losing the tortoise from the Mojave Desert would mean losing more than recycled burrows. The species' extinction could drastically change the landscape, says Emblidge.

"It would remove a keystone animal that is an indicator of ecosystem health," says Emblidge, who spent eight years studying tortoises at the USGS in the Southwest. "If tortoises are going extinct, we're doing something wrong and everything else is suffering as well."

Climate change makes temperatures hotter and droughts last longer. According to Jeff Lovich, a retired scientist, higher temperatures contribute to determining the sex of tortoise hatchlings.

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A 'tortoisey area'

In the Mojave Desert, Emblidge and Noss point out desert dandelion, devil's lettuce and other forage tortoises like to munch on. They hope that maybe the elusive desert tortoise will appear on this hot summer morning. After a short hike, Emblidge and Noss drop to their knees to look underneath a boulder. There, burrowed back into the dirt and camouflaged by the rock, is a tortoise with its big domed shell and stubby feet.

Emblidge and Noss climb higher up the rocks and spot another tortoise.

"This is a really tortoisey area," Noss says.

This one has a burrow in between two boulders where she's — yes, the tortoise is a female — buried deep, providing ample shade and protection from predators. Only her back shell and one leg are visible. "She's not very photogenic today," laughs Emblidge.

Emblidge and Noss say seeing two tortoises in one day is special because they're in serious danger of going extinct. "They are amazing animals when you get to know 'em," Noss says, "and they're doing what they can to survive out here. We're just not really giving them a chance."

But with additional federal funding for tortoise conservation unlikely, groups like the Mojave Desert Land Trust and the Desert Tortoise Council become more important, according to Drake, formerly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She says those groups will have to continue to "hold the line for a few years," for the sake of all endangered species and ecosystems.
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A windy and cool day is in store for the region today. The strongest winds will be along the coast, valleys and some mountain areas.

Highs for L.A. and Orange County coasts will be in the mid to high 60s.

Valley communities will see highs mostly in the low 60s. The eastern San Fernando Valley will see highs of up to 65 degrees.

Inland Empire temperatures will range from 61 to 68 degrees. Coachella Valley temps will rise up to 74 degrees. In the Antelope Valley, high temps will range from 48 to 57 degrees.

Wind advisories

The San Gabriel, Santa Susana, Santa Monica mountains are under wind advisories until 3 p.m. Thursday.

We're looking at wind speeds from 35 to 45 mph with some gusts up to 55 mph.

Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Santa Clarita Valley, Malibu and parts of Ventura County are also under a wind advisory until 3 p.m. Thursday. Wind speeds there will range from 25 to 35 mph, with some gusts up to 45 mph.

Look out for fallen tree limbs. The recently rain-soaked ground could make it easier for entire trees to fall. Some power outages could also occur.

Beach hazards

You'll want to avoid swimming in the ocean because of strong rip currents and breaking waves from high surf. Minor flooding of beach parking lots is possible. These conditions will last until Friday morning for the Orange County coast, and until Saturday morning for L.A. County beaches.

In 2021, Governor Newsom and state leaders set in motion a plan to make a public preschool program — transitional kindergarten — available for all 4-year-olds by this fall. The plan was touted as an effort to improve learning outcomes for lower-income families and break “cycles of intergenerational poverty.”

According to a new report from UC Berkeley, however, more affluent neighborhoods in L.A. County are leading enrollment in transitional kindergarten.

The report found that enrollment growth in the richest quarter of ZIP codes in the county — places that include Palos Verdes and Brentwood — climbed at three times the rate of growth in the poorest parts of the county from 2021 to the spring of 2024.

“We were surprised by the magnitude of that gap, and that raises all sorts of questions,” said Bruce Fuller, professor emeritus of education and public policy at UC Berkeley and co-author of the report, which is based on state data. “Is TK expansion really going to narrow disparities in young children's early development, or will TK actually exacerbate or reinforce these inequalities?”

The report shows that middle- to upper-income families are gaining the most from transitional kindergarten.

“They were paying through the nose for expensive preschool, and now they have free pre-K for their 4-year-olds,” Fuller said.

A number of publicly funded preschool programs already are options for lower-income families, like Head Start and school district-based early learning centers.

Neighborhoods where TK is growing rapidly also are in school districts that have more resources to renovate their facilities and hire more teachers for TK, Fuller said.

Preschool closures an unintended consequence 

The report also found that the growth of enrollment of 4-year-olds in the public school system correlated to the shrinking number of preschools in the community — areas with the highest growth in TK also had a higher number of preschool closures.

“ We found that as TK was growing, it's actually eroding the vitality of nonprofit, community-based preschools,” Fuller said. “They're hemorrhaging the 4-year-olds.”

Preschools haven’t been able to make the quick pivot to serving younger kids, like infants, to compensate, as state leaders intended in a 2020 roadmap for early education.

Between 2020 and 2024, Berkeley researchers found 167 pre-K centers across L.A. county closed.

Susie Leonard’s preschool in Mar Vista was one of them. The school, A Kid’s Place, closed in August 2023 after 20 years of operating.

“ We were very proud of our school and the families that we were able to help and the kids that we were able to help, so the fact that it was kind of a forced closure, it makes us sad,” Leonard said.

She said the nonprofit school already had been reeling from COVID when TK started expanding. Without the 4-year-olds, she said enrollment dropped from as many as 90 students to around 30.

“It was a double hit,” she said. “We didn't have a huge financial cushion to allow us to ride out a couple of years and to really attempt to get to enroll on the younger side. We were kind of functioning on fumes.”

Can private preschools adjust?

Champa Perera’s preschool, Kidzhaven in Sun Valley, closed in 2021 due to COVID. Now, she’s a professor in early childhood education and consults preschools trying to switch to serve younger children.

“That is where the market is right now,” she said.

But it’s a significant change: Switching to serving children 2 and under requires a different license from the state and also requires a higher adult-to-child ratio. And it can be challenging to find enough teachers, Perera said, which the report echoed. Teachers also are better paid in transitional kindergarten than their peers in private or publicly subsidized preschools.

Fuller said the expansion of transitional kindergarten has created competition in the early childhood landscape as birth rates decline.

“When we have this fragmentation, it sets up this competition for a shrinking number of kids, and that doesn't really serve anybody,” he said.

L.A. County leaders on Tuesday greenlit public transparency about payouts to county executives in response to LAist revealing a secretive $2 million settlement with the county’s CEO.

County supervisors unanimously approved a proposal by Supervisor Lindsey Horvath to have the county proactively inform the public about such settlements once they’re finalized and to look into creating a public website to describe them.

Among other things, the approved motion requires that all future settlements with county executives include language making it clear the agreement will be proactively disclosed to the public.

The backstory

The directive cited coverage by LAist revealing that two months ago, county CEO Fesia Davenport had quietly gotten a $2 million settlement payment from the county. As reported by LAist, Davenport’s settlement deal was labeled “confidential” and was not publicly reported out by the county.

The settlement was in response to her claims the supervisors harmed her reputation and caused her distress by putting a measure before voters — which was approved — that will create an elected county executive position. It’s among multiple reforms to restructure county government under last year’s voter-approved proposition, known as Measure G.

Davenport did not return a message for comment.

‘Public trust’ cited

“Transparency is central to strengthening public trust, without exception,” Horvath said in a statement after Tuesday’s vote. “Since joining the board, I have actively taken steps to ensure the public is included in the work of the county, especially concerning the use of public funds.

“Creating a clear process for department executive settlements is a commonsense action fundamental to good governance.”

David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, commented on the decision, calling transparency the "oxygen of accountability in government."

“There is no reason why the county should not be proactive about posting and disclosing settlements that have been reached, especially with former executives or staff,” Loy said.

Davenport was one of several county executives to receive sizable settlement payouts over the past few years. Four additional county executives received payouts, according to Davenport’s claims that led to her settlement.

Costco now is one of the largest companies to sue the Trump administration over tariffs, hoping to secure a refund if the Supreme Court declares the new import duties illegal.

The Supreme Court is weighing the future of President Donald Trump's tariffs on nearly all imports. Justices seemed skeptical about their legality during last month's oral arguments. Lower courts previously had found Trump improperly used emergency economic powers to set most of the new levies.

Dozens of companies across industries have filed lawsuits to seek refunds in the event the Supreme Court finds Trump's tariffs illegal. The list includes makeup giant Revlon, the canned foods maker Bumble Bee and Kawasaki, which makes motorcycles and more. Now Costco has joined the queue.

"This is the first time we're seeing big companies take their heads out of the sand publicly," said Marc Busch, a trade law expert at Georgetown University. For the most part, small companies have been leading the legal action against tariffs, he said, adding, "It's nice to finally see some heavyweights joining in the fray."

In its suit filed with the U.S. Court of International Trade, Costco did not specify how much it's already paid in tariffs, but the retail giant worries that even if the Supreme Court eventually unravels Trump's tariff regime, it may not be able to recoup all that money.

Costco executives in May had said that about a third of what is sold in the U.S. comes from abroad, predominantly non-food items.

NPR's Scott Horsley contributed to this report.
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