The Department of Defense plans to spend $25,883 to count giant fairy shrimp, butterflies, Argus land snails and other invertebrates at its airborne weapons testing and training facility in China Lake, California, located in the northeast Mojave Desert.The Naval Facilities Engineering Command is soliciting grant applicants to conduct a survey of “giant fairy shrimp, butterflies, Argus land snail, Jerusalem cricket, dune cockroach, Darwin Tiemann’s beetle, scarab beetle, and weevils” on the 1.1 million acre weapons testing site.The survey will also include a census of endangered plants, including the Lane Mountain milk-vetch …[that] grows up through other shrubs and may be found in the Superior Valley portion of the Mojave B south test complex.”
“These surveys are necessary to identify Lane Mountain milk-vetch habitat so that it can be protected from impacts due to military activities,” according to the grant’s “scope of work” document.
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