Company serves as tortoise ambulance

The minute Sharon Barbeau unlocked her office, the red light on her telephone began flashing and the beeper clipped to her waistband started to buzz.

She knew she was in for a busy day. Translation: A few tortoise owners had lost track of their pets or construction equipment rocking the desert floor had tortoises scrambling for safety.

"A lot of times they hear noise from equipment or feel the vibrations from construction and come out of their burrows to see what's going on," Barbeau said.

And that's when Barbeau steps in.

Barbeau is basically a tortoise-catcher, but to Clark County administrators and residents she is far more important than the title might suggest.

She is an employee at Southern Nevada Environmental Inc., a company the county pays $300,000 a year to scoop up displaced or wounded desert tortoises and shuttle them to the veterinarian or the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center.

Christina Gibson, management analyst for the county's comprehensive planning division, said because desert tortoises are threatened and have been placed on the federal Endangered Species list, they must be protected.

But, she said, the county wasn't required to go as far as it did.

"The public insisted we do everything we can to rescue the tortoises and house them," Gibson said. "They would not stand for anything else. They wanted us to save the life of every tortoise we possibly could."

And that's why the county turned to Southern Nevada Environmental in the early 1990s.

On this workday, Barbeau loaded a sick desert tortoise into her sport utility vehicle, hopped into the driver's seat and started the odometer spinning. When Barbeau works the desert tortoise hotline, she averages 100 miles a day as she zig-zags across the valley.

The tortoise hotline is the only county program that caters to a specific species. And Clark County may be the only jurisdiction in the country that not only protects a species, but pays for medical treatment on each individual animal.

One item on Barbeau's to-do list was to take a tortoise with a tumor on its neck to the vet. Veterinarian fees charged to the county amount to only about $200 a year.

"The only time a tortoise goes to the vet is if it's chewed up pretty badly or is sick," Gibson said.

Because the tortoise Barbeau was hauling around wasn't dying, she answered pages before making the trip to the doctor.

The first call on Barbeau's hotline shift was from a woman in Summerlin, where ideal tortoise habitat and plenty of development contributes to a significant homeless tortoise population.

This tortoise was found lumbering up a street in a new neighborhood.

"The kids wanted to keep it, but I said he's better off with his friends," the woman said, cradling the tortoise. "Good luck to you little guy."

Barbeau was filled out the paperwork in her truck, logging the tortoise's size and any unique marks, when the next call came in. A Las Vegas woman had discovered a 2-inch-long hatchling, or baby tortoise, walking on the sidewalk.

The young tortoise probably was one of a new litter born to a neighbor's tortoise, Barbeau surmises.

Gibson said it's more difficult to protect desert tortoises than it is other animals placed on the Endangered Species list because most of Clark County is prime habitat.

"The case of the desert tortoise is unique because it inhabits so much of the land," she said. "If you're dealing with a fish or a bird, they're usually found in a specific area and they are easier to protect."

As the day passed, boxes with tortoises stacked up in Barbeau's back seat. By early afternoon, she was ready to escort them to the conservation area, which sits in the middle of the desert near Blue Diamond.

At the facility, the tortoises' data is entered into a computer. Next, it's examined, tagged and set loose in one of dozens of pens with natural desert terrain. Nearly 800 tortoises are temporarily living at the conservation area.

About twice a year, they are hauled to the county's preservation area -- the only one in the country for desert tortoises. They are released near manmade burrows scattered throughout a 750,000-acre conservation area near Searchlight.

Southern Nevada Environmental workers said the only turtles that get a ride to new desert homes are the ones that have been found in people's yards, on neighborhood streets, or at construction sites.

Tortoise experts don't want to hear from anyone else.

"Tortoises often cross the roads through undeveloped desert," says a booklet that Barbeau packs with her. "They know where they are going; they are not lost."

Those who might consider making a displaced tortoise their new pet should think again. While people can adopt desert tortoises, it is illegal to pick one up and keep it. Tortoise snatchers who don't call upon the county may have to shell out $25,000 in fines.

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