A proposed low-effect habitat conservation plan for the desert tortoise will be in effect for only one year, Nye County commissioners decided Monday.

The commissioners spent another two and a half hours trying to reach a consensus with developers like Tim Hafen on the best plan. Hafen suggested expanding the allowable acreage covered under the plan from 100 acres to 1,000 acres.

If the state Fish and Wildlife office won't approve an incidental take permit for more than 100 acres, Hafen also suggested Nye County could bypass it and go straight to the Sacramento, Calif., regional office.

Instead, Commissioner Gary Hollis' suggestion was adopted, to shorten the period of the plan.

Consultant Mary Darling said one major accomplishment in negotiations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been an agreement to allow ordinary residents to move a desert tortoise, if this habitat conservation plan is adopted.

"We can show anybody how to move a tortoise and go from there. We don't have to hire a biologist to move a tortoise out of harm's way," Darling said.

Julene Haworth, who represented Hafen, showed surveys from 1989 to 2002 which showed no desert tortoises were found.

"That map is so arbitrary it's laughable," Hafen said of the desert tortoise habitat zones. "There's no scientific justification for it."

Hafen was upset consultant Bill Fisher mentioned the plan was to cover small property owners wanting to develop lots under five acres. Large developers could execute their own agreements with the Fish and Wildlife Service, he said.

"Why would Nye County abandon all the property owners out there with more than five acres?" Hafen asked.

Hafen said there would be a flood of applications for desert tortoise mitigation plans. He said having a blanket plan for up to 500 acres would still cover only a fraction of a percent of the 230,921 acres in the Pahrump planning district.

Hafen could foresee developers being forced to have biologists on site during construction. The plan requires a wildlife biologist to survey property 30 days prior to clearing the land in desert tortoise habitat zones. If construction doesn't begin until more than 30 days after the survey, a desert tortoise fence has to be constructed.

"This is way out of bounds. This is not passing the smell test," Hafen said.

Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos said there haven't been surveys on desert tortoise populations, such as the Nevada Division on Wildlife would use when handing out deer tags during hunting season.

"We're dealing with desert tortoise habitat, we're not dealing with individual animals," Fisher said, who denied accusations he was working in collusion with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Fisher, the former manager of the Tonopah BLM field office, said Nye County could challenge the Endangered Species Act, but numerous others have lost court cases over it.

Hafen also pushed for a conservation plan for only the desert tortoise. The plan being considered would be a short-term arrangement until a long-term multi-species plan being drawn up by Entrix Consultants is adopted.

Consultant Mary Ellen Giampaoli cautioned that Fish and Wildlife officials in 1999 threatened to issue citations against people clearing desert tortoise habitat in Pahrump. The penalties run up to $25,000 and six months in jail, she said.

"I'm willing to run that risk because I don't think they can put a helluva lot of pressure on me unless they have some science," Hafen said.

Hafen said he didn't think it would do any good to negotiate for more acreage, once the 100 acres is developed.

Fisher said if the county at least has a plan in place and exceeds the allowable 100 acres of development, "We showed a good faith effort if we ever get drawn into court."

Haworth said $46,000 paid by the Nye County School District for desert tortoise mitigation at Hafen Elementary School went to Clark County. If Nye County passes a desert tortoise conservation plan, an enterprise fund would be set up with the mitigation funds. The short-term plan calls for levying fees of $250 per acre to $550 per acre in the desert tortoise habitat zones. Some of the money would go toward planting desert tortoise habitat.

Darling told Nye County Manager Ron Williams the Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't have personnel to watch over the county's shoulders, inspecting developers out in the field. Williams said the county building inspectors aren't going to be monitoring developers for desert tortoise mitigation.

Giampaoli said Nye County would determine if a building permit application was in a desert tortoise habitat zone, and if it is, collect the per-acre mitigation fees and require proof a site has been surveyed for tortoises.

It won't be necessary to hire a compliance monitor, like George Bernath who monitors the Pahrump air quality program, she said.

"We're very high on the Fish and Wildlife radar," Giampaoli warned. She said if the long-term plan isn't completed after that year, Nye County will again be exposed to enforcement action.