Pika’aya Tooveep Project: Partnerships the key to success in learning more about ‘tortoise country’

Composite image | Background photo showing the terrain surveyed on Shivwits Reservation land, Utah, with inset images showing (L-R) a Mojave Desert tortoise in a burrow, a Shivwits Band member who participated in the surveys as a student volunteer and other project partners searching for tortoise signs under a boulder, Shivwits Reservation, Utah, dates unspecified | Inset and background images courtesy of the Pika'aya Tooveep Project, St. George News

ST. GEORGEThe results of a project 18 months in the making were reported to the Washington County Habitat Conservation Advisory Committee at its Jan. 25 meeting, following approval from the Shivwits Band Council. 

Mojave Desert tortoise, like the one pictured above encountered during the survey, can live up to 80 years and had a historic range from Utah to northwestern Mexico, Shivwits Reservation, Utah, date unspecified | Photo courtesy of the Pika’aya Tooveep Project, St. George News

Pika’aya Tooveep, which means “tortoise country” or “tortoise land” in the Shivwits dialect, was the title given to a two-part project combining scientific surveys and tribal elders’ perspectives on conservation. 

Combining the expertise and resources of state and federal wildlife management agencies, two universities, two conservation nonprofits and the original caretakers of Southwest Utah – the Shivwits Band of Paiutes – work on the project began in fall 2020 with early tortoise surveys and continued into early 2022 with the final editing and release of an oral history component.

“It’s a long time coming,” said Carmen Clark, a member of the advisory committee and Shivwits Band of Paiutes. “We’re here to protect our land and our resources, so it’s good to have people come out and do these surveys so we know what’s out there.”

The missing piece of tortoise conservation

Contributing biologists and wildlife managers were eager to learn more about Mojave Desert tortoises on Shivwits land, particularly because previous scientific records involving tortoises on reservation land were few and far between. 

“We didn’t have much historical data going into it,” said Mike Schijf, habitat conservation plan biologist. “There was a researcher from the University of Nevada that did a translocation study on the reservation in the 1990s, but all of the tortoise points (data) to our knowledge were from that study and we weren’t aware of much besides that.”

Tortoise biologists joined project partners and student interns to search for tortoises beginning in the fall of 2020, Shivwits Reservation, Utah, date unspecified | Photo courtesy of the Pika’aya Tooveep Project, St. George News

In consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Schijf and his colleagues identified prime habitat for desert tortoises within the reservation borders and conducted early polygon surveys over the course of 11 days.

With a team of 33 surveyors made up of trained biologists, Dixie State University students and Indigenous youth interns, the first stages of the tortoise research were helpful in training those new to the process in identifying signs of tortoise habitation and focusing the search area for the next stage.

From April to May 2021, participants conducted in-depth transect surveys where surveyors walked for miles across the landscape in straight lines. Observed tortoises and signs of their habitation were recorded, along with notes about their health, age and living conditions.

Twenty-seven unique tortoises were observed between the two surveys, allowing management agencies to make estimates about the overall population based on the density of the observed individuals. Abundance estimates ranged from an optimistic 227 tortoises to a conservative 113. 

From April to May 2021, Pika’aya Project partners participated in transect surveys covering 8,204 acres over 13 days. Volunteers and biologists walked a combine 155 miles during the survey | Image courtesy of the Pika’aya Tooveep Project, St. George News

Cameron Rognan, administrator of the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, said the surveys produced a number of interesting comparisons between the reserve and reservation land. Rognan said findings indicated that tortoises in the reservation were healthy but more sparsely populated than their reserve counterparts.

Additionally, the surveyors found far fewer young tortoises than expected. Whereas juveniles usually comprise about 30% of the tortoises observed in the reserve, only about 7% of the tortoises found during the Shivwits surveys were still in the developmental stage.

Nonetheless, Rognan and his staff were pleasantly surprised by the number of tortoises observed and said it was more than they initially expected. The next step for the HCP and wildlife management agencies is to work with the Shivwits Band Council to figure out how best to protect the tortoises and communicate their needs to the broader community, he said.

“We want to preserve the connectivity corridors as much as we can to ensure that overall the population of tortoises in the county can be strong and stable and hopefully recover,” Rognan said. “The Shivwits was a kind of a missing piece that we needed to better understand to get the full picture of tortoise recovery in the county.”

Preserving traditional ecology from tribal elders

The second goal of the Pika’aya Tooveep Project was to collect and share the history and knowledge of Shivwits Band elders. The bulk of these efforts were undertaken by Bethany Jake, a Shivwits Band member who conducted interviews and compiled the recorded information from five elders.

Jake was one of two Indigenous youth that earned a paid internship through Conserve Southwest Utah to participate in the project. Regarding her contributions and motivations, Jake wrote:

The Pika’aya Tooveep Project is about protecting the land that is around us. There are vulnerable populations here that need protection, such as the desert tortoise. They are a valued part of the Shivwits peoples’ culture in the form of being seen as a warrior. My goal for this project is not only to bring awareness and knowledge of the desert tortoise, but to also immortalize my Elders’ stories and their voices. That way future generations will have access to their history, and families will have strong ties to their ancestors.

In total, Jake transcribed over 150 pages of information and recorded eight hours of elders’ interviews, portions of which have already been shared on Native Lens Television and through the Native Braids Podcast.

Bethany Jake, a member of the Shivwits Band of Paiutes, participated in the Pika’aya Tooveep project as a student intern, date not specified | Photo courtesy of Sarah Thomas, St. George News

Sarah Thomas-Clayburn, who co-managed the Pika’aya Tooveep project for Conserve Southwest Utah, said she’s working with Jake to make her work more publicly available and get the audio recordings archived in the special collections at Southern Utah University.

The project’s success was tied to the willingness of all involved to cooperate with one another and share their knowledge, Thomas said.

“The desert tortoise survey is the Western science, and the interviews with band elders about the tortoise along with Shivwits Band’s guidance throughout the entire project – that’s the traditional ecological knowledge,” she said. “They’re equally valuable and necessary for protecting our beautiful lands here in southwest Utah.”

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