Update: There is even more to the story. It seems most of the Turtles that would be euthanized are actually sick pet turtles. See comment below by judielaine.
The San Francisco Chronicle had a very disturbing story about how the Desert Conservation Center in Nevada plans to euthanize over half of its 1400 desert tortoises. The Center says that federal funds are running out and their will be no money to keep up the center. Those Tortoises that are healthy enough to survive in the wild will be releases. It is believed that there are no more than 100,000 desert tortoises today as opposed to the millions in the US southwest in the past.
Read more at: Tortoises to be euthanized as sanctuary goes broke – SFGate.
Natural History Wanderings 
You might want to read the statement from http://www.tortoisegroup.org/news/story.php — the tortoises to be put down are pet tortoises with disease. (Still not a happy thing to hear.) There is an adoption program: http://www.tortoisegroup.org/infosheets/infosheet29.php
It sounds like a Californian who would want to adopt would have to make export arrangements with the Ca DFW and Nevada. I suspect it would be hard to make a case to CA DFW to bring a diseased tortoise into the state.
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By: judielaine on August 27, 2013
at 7:03 AM