Off-roading is now off-limits on routes spanning 1 million acres of the western Mojave Desert after a six-year legal battle over whether adding thousands of miles of new dirt roads would harm the ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. As monsoon rains bring much needed water to Arizona’s deserts, you may notice some of the state’s beloved shell-backed reptiles on ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. This Sept. 3, 2008, file photo shows an endangered desert tortoise sitting in the middle of an eastern Mojave Desert road. | Reed ...

In this April 4, 2008 file photo, Marines wait for a desert tortoise to move off the road at the U.S. Marine Corps' Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File) (CN ...

This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today. Spotting a Mojave Desert tortoise is ...

A federal judge has partly ruled in favor of environmental groups challenging what one called a vast "spaghetti" network of popular off-road vehicle routes in the Mojave Desert, which they charge are ...

Desert tortoises have lived in the deserts of California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah since the Pleistocene. In the early years of the 20th century, they still thrived within the Southwest's arid ...

The animals are also vulnerable to a range of deadly diseases such as upper respiratory illnesses and the shell disease cutaneous dyskeratosis, which softens their shells. Finally, as climate change ...

The Fish and Wildlife Service proposal would ease permitting for projects that could harm the threatened species in an area with significant development possibilities. A long-awaited conservation plan ...

A fifth-grade class from Selma Bartlett Elementary visited Springs Preserve for a free field trip after a student came closest in the Mojave Max emergence contest.

As monsoon rains bring much needed water to Arizona’s deserts, you may notice some of the state’s beloved shell-backed reptiles on the move. State wildlife officials have a message for those who may ...