|
Written by Wild Nevada
|
|
Friday, 20 August 2010 13:37 |
Hey all – be sure to pick up the latest copy of Nevada Magazine… (neat cover, huh?). Page 38 features a short story about thru-hiker Adam Bradley and the “SWIP Trip” he hiked this spring with the Nevada Wilderness Project.
“In the energy-hungry world in which we live, people rarely take the time to think of what it takes to power our homes, offices, shopping centers—basically our lives. With the support of the Nevada Wilderness Project, Bradley set out in the spring to follow the path of the planned Southwest Intertie Project…”
The article continues, “Bradley’s journey underscores the very reason the advancement of such green energy initiatives is so vital for Nevada, the nation, and the world. As the default stewards of the planet’s fragile ecosystems, we must ensure that the evolution of human progress does not irreparably harm the land that supports us and be mindful of the environmental cost of things we consider necessities.” (Read the whole article here.)
The photographs are by Tyler Roemer, that dog-scorpion magnet from Bend, Oregon whose work we here at NWP are so lucky to have on our website and blog.
And if you haven’t had a chance to watch the KTVN Channel 2 news story about Adam and the SWIP, scroll down. It’s in the post just below this one.
|
|
|
Written by Wild Nevada
|
|
Friday, 13 August 2010 10:26 |
KTVN Channel 2 News Photographer Jeff Foss did a story on the Southwest Intertie Project transmission line and the Nevada Wilderness Project’s “SWIP Trip,” with Adam Bradley. The news story ran Wednesday during Channel 2’s 5 o’clock and 11 o’clock nightly news show.
Jeff Foss spent a good amount of time working on the piece… interviewing NWP staff, Adam and the SWIP project developers, and incorporating some film footage we shot while out in the wilds. The story does a good job of explaining why we asked Adam to hike the whole 500 miles of the line, how the information we gathered will help NWP in the future, and reports on a good outcome from the trip.
|
|
Written by Wild Nevada
|
|
Monday, 14 June 2010 13:24 |
The summer issue of the magazine Desert Companion, published by Nevada Public Radio, contains an essay written by NWP Director John Wallin, titled “An energetic yes.”
“I’m a passionate environmentalist,” he begins. “I’m also realistic about the urgent need to develop renewable energy.”
John’s essay continues with a recollection of Adam Bradley’s launch of the “SWIP Trip” on Earth Day, followed by an explanation of why the Nevada Wilderness Project supports building a new 500-mile SWIP transmission line through the eastern half of the state.
It’s a line that will impact wildlife habitats, but one that will carry electricity generated from renewable sources. The SWIP line represents an opportunity (with many more to come) to plan and execute a “smart from the start” project that allows us to reap the economic, environmental and national security benefits of a clean energy economy – and accomplish meaningful habitat conservation right here in Nevada where some of the very best “Wild West” landscapes remain. We think it’s our job to make sure both of these things happen. And soon.
It boils down to this: We want to develop renewable energy. Protect wildlife habitat. Do both at the same time.
And we’re seeing progress. Last week’s introduction of the American Solar Energy Pilot Leasing Act of 2010, by Senator Reid and Congressman Heller, is a bill that would designate two solar energy development zones—along the SWIP transmission line—and establish a Renewable Energy Mitigation and Fish and Wildlife Fund. The Fund will consist of royalties and leases collected based on the sale of electricity and be spent on conservation projects in Nevada.
John’s essay explains why we think Nevada is ripe for more “smart from the start” projects and why it’s so important – to our own state and others. One of the best lines is this: “Clean, homegrown energy that won’t run out.”
You can read John’s essay here.
|
|
Written by Wild Nevada
|
|
Tuesday, 25 May 2010 10:44 |
Hello NWP friends,
We’ve just posted below the last diary filmed by Adam Bradley as he finished up the SWIP trip. He made it during the very last day—Day 16—of walking. He had lots to say! - 30 minutes or more, in fact. And while hanging with Adam and talking for 30 minutes—or several hours—is always great, we’ve edited this diary down to about 6 minutes. Better format to satisfy the antsy demands of digital communication.
We think you’ll like it. He talks about the abundant wildlife he experienced in the Mojave, muses on bighorn sheep habitat and that animal’s need for landscape connectivity, and just offers up some final thoughts on his whole experience out there on the SWIP.
For us, it represents a pivot in our story-telling about the Southwest Intertie Project. The 16-day trip is over, but the stories will unfold for a long time. They won’t all be directly related to the SWIP—we are working on a number of other issues affecting public lands and wilderness around the state—but what we learned out there is informing and helping us advance many of our goals for “smart from the start” renewable energy development. And that has been an invaluable outcome of the Trip.
|
|
Written by Wild Nevada
|
|
Tuesday, 11 May 2010 11:09 |
During the last few days of the SWIP Trip last week, we had trouble connecting to the internet and up-loading video. So even though Adam Bradley has completed the SWIP Trip, we thought people would like to see the video diary he shot on day 12 (out of 16).
So here is Adam’s 6th video diary, shot as he walked into the White River Valley, about four days away from the end of his hike. The second one is shorter, with some great audio that captures a bit of the atmosphere and sights of eastern Nevada's valleys.
|
|
Written by Wild Nevada
|
|
Friday, 07 May 2010 11:16 |
Adam Bradley finished the SWIP Trip this afternoon! He stopped on Highway 93 between the Desert Refuge and Coyote Springs development… Sixteen days ago, he began walking in Jerome County, Idaho. Right around 500 miles later, he is in southern Nevada north of Las Vegas and the Harry Allen Substation. He swipped it. Swipped it good!
We will continue to post some video diaries, essays and photographs from this crazy trip. But right now, Adam and the rest of the NWP crew need a sun shower and a ride home to Reno. We have much to think about, talk about, compare notes about. There are piles of gear to put away, sleeping bags to air out, desert dust to shake out… Family members to make up to for putting up with our two-week absence, dozens of NWP friends and volunteers to thank, and new people we’ve met on the way…
So we hope you’ve enjoyed this trip via the weethump blog. We have, and there’s much more to come. Thanks to one and all for your support – and please, keep checking in on our blog. We're going to keep posting beautiful images, stories and information from the SWIP and other NWP happenings…
For the Wild,
The Nevada Wilderness Project
|
|
Written by Wild Nevada
|
|
Friday, 07 May 2010 10:44 |
Among the dozens of people we want to thank for supporting us during the SWIP Trip (you know who you are), the three guys below deserve extra kudos. Affectionately known as the Missouri Boys, they each traveled significant portions of the SWIP Trip to document Adam’s hike and the landscape along the SWIP’s corridor, talk to people who live near it, and just generally make the journey a whole lot more fun for all of us. Plus, they really like sleeping in the dirt.
Tom Newcomb (left) is a cameraman and producer for Technisonic in St. Louis. He has more than 20 years of experience shooting natural history and wildlife stories. He filmed in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge with us last spring. Jim Karpowicz (middle) and Rob West (right) work together throughout the Midwest and beyond, filming TV segments for Bass Pro Shops, Audubon, and many other conservation groups as The Documentary Group. Rob came to Reno and filmed the beginning of the SWIP trip up in Idaho, then returned to get in on the last leg. This is Jim’s second trip to Nevada to help out NWP; he came last year and made a 10-minute film about us. You can watch it here.
They will be sharing their footage with us in the coming months, and also working on an independent short film about the SWIP Trip.
Thank you so much - your contribution is just tremendous.
|
|
Written by Wild Nevada
|
|
Friday, 07 May 2010 08:20 |
In Adam’s last stretch of travel, he will be hiking to the east of the Sheep Range and the Desert National Wildlife Refuge. The NWP crew camped just inside the Refuge boundary last night. The Sheep Range is a spectacular desert mountain range that reaches nearly 10,000 feet at its tallest point, Hayford Peak. The Desert Refuge is 1.6 million acres of wild country, with 1.4 million acres recommended for wilderness designation in 1974. East of Adam’s path is a spectacular series of wilderness areas that were protected in the Clark and Lincoln County lands bills: Delamar Mountains, Meadow Valley Mountains, and Arrow Canyon.
These areas comprise significant habitat for desert bighorn sheep, Nevada’s most iconic large mammal. We posted the other day about the state’s efforts to restore bighorn sheep after their near-disappearance as a result of domestic sheep interactions causing die-offs from disease throughout the state. This concern is what led to the establishment of the Desert Refuge in 1936. At that time, sheep moved seasonally from the lower ranges now protected as wilderness to the high-elevation, rugged habitats of the Sheep Range where it is ideal for female sheep, called ewes, to have their lambs. There the air is cooler, there is plenty of escape cover and terrain from predators, and natural springs were plentiful providing water and nutritious vegetation for sheep in the driest periods.
Since then, Coyote Springs Valley, which lies directly between the Desert Refuge and the wilderness areas to the east, has undergone drastic change. U.S. Highway 93 traverses the valley. The route that was once sleepy has become a major artery for goods and people. Additionally, the ongoing development of Coyote Springs as a golf community with a planned build-out of 159,000 homes will forever change the situation for wildlife, their habitats and their connectivity. Land use planning has never seriously considered the impacts that these changes are having on wildlife in the area, including the severing of movement routes for bighorn sheep.
The SWIP will be one more impact to the area, but one that is not expected to greatly affect the movement potential for bighorn sheep as a singular event. But therein lies the rub: development on public lands should be considered within the broader context of cumulative impacts to species. So the SWIP, in toto, is a project that makes sense because it opens the doors for renewable energy development in Nevada and the intermountain west that will feed the hungriest markets of the desert southwest. This will help us tackle the very serious threat that is climate change. But in the broader context of development throughout the region, we need to be mindful that our land management agencies have fallen behind and need to be working harder to maintain or restore wildlife connectivity; to set aside vast acreages of our most valuable landscapes with permanent, well-managed protection; to secure a legacy of wildness and permeability across our public lands that will outlast all of us.
So in Adam’s home stretch, he will see places where bighorn sheep did and still do wander the landscape. But the many changes that are piling up through this stretch are threatening bighorn sheep, and we need to work now to solve this problem. We need to develop crossing structures that allow wildlife above and below the highway; we need to prevent sheep from becoming a golf course species in this valley; and we need to get our land management agencies thinking beyond development and much more seriously at conservation.
This is a photo of a bobcat captured this spring with one of our motion-triggered cameras, set up on BLM land just outside the Desert Refuge near Highway 93, as part of our partnership with Freedom to Roam's Witness for Wildlife program. The bobcat was following a wash that's used by all kinds of animals to avoid the road. Collecting these images gives us a better sense of seasonal movements of all kinds of animals. (check out this link to see an exciting discovery made by our friends at Sky Island Alliance, using similar technology.)
|
|
Written by Wild Nevada
|
|
Friday, 07 May 2010 08:05 |
As Adam's hike and the SWIP Trip is coming to a close, we know we need to take a week or so to collect our information, thoughts and experiences, then continue to role out the SWIP Trip story. But one of the key elements of our “smart from the start” campaign is making sure that we recognize the need to protect Nevada’s most important places to offset habitat loss and fragmentation that results from development of renewable energy.
The SWIP represents a massive effort to move electricity from a variety of locations, much of which will come from new renewable energy projects. When you place 501 miles of powerline across two states, you are going to impact wildlife. There will be habitat fragmentation and increased aerial predators, even with the best efforts being made to reduce perching and nesting on towers.
In order for this to really be “smart from the start,” we need to see creative solutions to address these impacts to wildlife and their habitats. One such solution is in discussion in Lincoln County. On the table is proposed legislation that would designate solar energy zones in Lincoln County to spur the local economy with construction and permanent green jobs. The zones would open up a bid process for the rights to rapidly deploy solar energy development that would tie into the SWIP. In the same piece of legislation, a large National Conservation Area would be designated in Garden Valley that would protect hundreds of thousands of acres of Great Basin habitat that provides the southern most extent for sage-grouse, pygmy rabbits and other sagebrush obligate species. Additionally, the NCA would protect the viewshed for the massive, landscape art project by Michael Heizer called “City.”
In addition to these conservation opportunities, this legislation would provide a site-specific royalty structure that may serve as the model for all solar energy from public lands. From this royalty, 35 percent would go directly to wildlife habitat conservation activities, a much-needed source of revenue that will, among other things, help restore sage grouse habitat and provide the conservation boost needed to keep the species from being listed. The county and state would also have a revenue stream to help bring us out of our current economic slump. Finally, the Bureau of Land Management would get funding to improve their capacity to manage renewable energy permitting in the state.
The Lincoln County legislation is something that would greatly benefit all interests in Nevada, and this is a clear example of how a large energy development project can be “smart from the start.”
|
|
Written by Wild Nevada
|
|
Friday, 07 May 2010 07:36 |
Good morning – and welcome to Day 16 of the SWIP Trip! Adam Bradley will very likely finish the trip today. The 500-mile marker is looming, as is Highway 93, the Coyote Springs development, and the Harry Allen substation, the lights and bustle of Las Vegas…
Our connections to the internet have been sketchy lately, and photos and video have been really hard to upload (259 minutes for a 3-minute video clip!). We assumed as we got closer to Vegas, all this grinding of the digital sausage would grow easier, but that hasn't been the case. Anyway, we hope to post another one of Adam’s diaries later on today. Photos coming soon, too.
The word for the last few days: valley, valley and more valley.
Adam’s been trucking through some long, flat areas with plenty of time to think… He told us he hit a low point a couple of days ago – struggling with walking just on roads, experiencing little change in topography, wishing for a mountain bike, being awakened at 11 pm by the police asking for his identification (it turned out all right – once he woke up and realized they weren’t whackos out to harass him), and thinking, “I get it! The SWIP goes forever through this valley!!!”
Now that the end is in sight, however, his spirits are high and we’ve had some great conversations. We’re all looking forward to getting home to Reno, taking time digest what we’ve seen and experienced.
More posts coming about the Dry Lake and Delamar solar study areas, Desert Refuge, and other info about this final stretch.
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 1 of 6 |
|
|
