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Take Action for 7 Solar Study Areas in Nevada |
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Tome Acción! Passez à l'action! Harekete Geçin! Iverksett handling! Podjęcie działań! Социологически изследвания! 采取行动! ...or as we say in English:
Take Action! (- Well, we did. And so did some of you. Read on.)
What’s the Scoop? On June 29, Senator Reid and Interior Secretary Salazar announced plans to fast-track 24 solar energy study areas in six western states. Seven of those areas (see map) are on public lands in Nevada:
- Amargosa Valley (32,699 acres)
- Dry Lake (16,516 acres)
- Delamar Valley (17,932 acres)
- Dry Lake Valley North (49,775 acres)
- East Mormon Mountain (7,418 acres)
- Gold Point (5,830 acres)
- Millers (19,205 acres)
These are BLM-administered lands, and government agencies are seeking to conduct a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) that will:
• evaluate these lands for utility-scale solar energy development
• develop and implement Agency-specific programs that would establish environmental policies and mitigation strategies for solar energy projects
• amend relevant BLM land use plans with the consideration of establishing a new BLM solar energy development program
In simpler language, these lands will be studied—ASAP—for their suitability for solar projects, with the goal of building solar developments in the West much faster than it would ordinarily take.
Why is This Important? Broadly speaking, studying these areas for possible solar development is a good thing, provided we proceed in a way that is “smart from the start.” This means harnessing Nevada’s renewable and clean energy resources while protecting wildlife corridors and habitats, and protecting the iconic beauty and open spaces of the state. (click here to read more about “smart from the start.”) Addressing the climate and energy crisis through renewable energy development must not exacerbate loss of habitat and biological diversity. The public had until Sept. 14, 2009 to comment on this plan for accelerated study, and we wrote and submitted ours.
Here's how it worked:
We wrote our general observations and suggestions about their plan. In concert with our national partners, The Wilderness Society, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club, we then provided comments on Nevada's seven specific sites (Our national partners provided comments on all 24). To assess each area, we filtered the sites against available biological data, including:
• Nevada Natural Heritage Program (NNHP) data
• Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) data
• Data from other conservation groups using a Geographic Information System
The biological information from this filtering process provides valuable baseline information for each of the proposed Solar Energy Study Areas (SESAs) and is useful in identifying potential wildlife conflicts. Only species that have some conservation concern within the state were included (for example, NDOW species of concern or species where limited information is available on their overall state). NWP also examined the areas against a composite model of species diversity for Nevada that we produced using Southwest Regional GAP Analysis Project 30-m wildlife habitat models. This model included all models available for profiled species in Nevada’s Wildlife Action Plan and species that were in the NNHP dataset but not in the Wildlife Action Plan. Overall, 96 species were used after removing several problematic species or models (e.g., no bat species were included because their habitat models were too general to be informative).  Still with us? Read on...
So for example, Dry Lake is one of the proposed areas. We provided a map and wrote:
"This SESA has desert tortoise and rosy two-tone beardtongue from the NNHP data. Several intersections occur with NDOW mapped movement corridors for desert bighorn sheep, but wildlife corridors are supposed to be excluded in SESA designation. Adjustments should be made to exclude those corridors. The NDOW data shows the presence of the banded Gila monster, common chuckwalla, desert banded gecko, desert horned lizard, desert night lizard, LeConte’s thrasher, long-nosed leopard lizard, sage sparrow and western banded gecko. The proximity to Las Vegas and existing transmission development in the area make this one of the more heavily inventoried SESAs in Nevada; it also makes this an area that has seen impacts from exurban activities that are damaging to the quality of wildlife habitats (an example of cumulative impacts). Because rocky outcrops are high-quality habitat for many of the lizard species of conservation concern and because solar energy construction may require the removal these large boulders, NWP recommends the BLM explicitly exclude rock outcrops from the SESA.
The area also shows high biodiversity potential, typical of much of the Mojave Desert. Because of the many species showing up in the southern portion of this SESA, it would seem more feasible to limit the site to the northern portion of the current SESA. A preferred alternative SESA is depicted above where the northern portion is kept and the SESA is extended to the east following I-15 and the Moapa Valley Indian Reservation, shown as black cross-hatching (figure 1). This configuration would avoid bighorn movement corridors and not press up against bighorn habitat in the Arrow Canyon Range. Additionally, some of the more sensitive species found in the south of the current SESA are excluded. The alternative SESA is approximately 13,500 acres."
Read our comments in their entirety here.
What Can I Do?
- Read more about “smart from the start” renewable energy development and our Climate Change, Energy and Wildlands conservation program on this website.
- Stay tuned. We'll be posting more information about this issue.
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