After months of wrangling, Nye County Commissioners Tuesday passed their own draft of a desert tortoise habitat conservation plan.

Commissioner Butch Borasky only asked for a few changes to some of the wording, like deleting a reference to the county natural resources department, which no longer exists.

Chairwoman Joni Eastley didn't ask for public comment. Consultant Julene Haworth, who drafted the plan, was at the speaker's table but didn't have to make a comment. Eastley said nobody submitted a written request to comment.

Developer Tim Hafen, who was very vocal in his opposition to previous desert tortoise plans submitted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sat quietly in the back row.

The plan allows an incidental take of the endangered desert tortoise on up to 500 acres of private land in the fee zone of the Pahrump Regional Planning District at a cost of $325 per acre. The fees will be charged by the Nye County Planning Department at the time other mandatory fees are collected.

Previous plans drafted by consultants in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, suggested a permit that would allow disturbing up to 100 acres, with fees of $550 per acre or $250 per acre in the fee areas, which are mostly on the perimeter of developed areas in the Pahrump Valley.

The county states its request is based on a lack of desert tortoises in the district, as indicated by numerous scientific tortoise surveys. The study refers to surveys for the 80-acre landfill site in 1992 and a 2006 study of two acres for a water tower near Manse Road and Highway 160.

The effect to the desert tortoise of allowing an incidental taking on the 500 acres would be minor because the habitat is marginal for desert tortoises and in decline, the county states. A higher quality habitat also exists outside the covered area, the county states.

The county plan states it would be better for the survival of the desert tortoise if mitigation fees were spent on conservation measures to preserve the tortoises in the wild, not to deal with tortoises which may have the potential to be displaced by development. The county suggests mitigation fees could be used to enhance desert tortoise habitat on public lands to offset the loss of up to 500 acres.

A plan administrator, trained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will be able to conduct surveys prior to construction and remove any tortoises that may be encountered.

A habitat conservation plan advisory committee will be appointed, consisting of volunteers from stakeholder groups like real estate, builders, town board members and at least one veterinarian or a person with a history of working with animals.

The county plan is Phase I in the development of a long-term desert tortoise conservation plan.

Nye County will develop an annual report to be submitted to the fish and wildlife service detailing any tortoises killed or injured, acreage disturbed by construction, mitigation fees collected and spent and a summary of habitat rehabilitation efforts.

The fish and wildlife service would have the burden of showing that an unforeseen event has occurred which is likely to have an adverse impact on the desert tortoise to reduce the likelihood of their survival in the wild to incite change in the regulations.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has 60 days to provide any revisions to the plan, or disapprove it entirely. Eastley predicted fish and wildlife would probably reject the plan, on her way out of the Bob Ruud Community Center.