Defenders of Wildlife Blog

The Calico project's footprint, comprised of fields of solar panels similar to this one, will fall on 4,000 acres of public land in California, including key habitat for threatened desert tortoise.

BREAKING: The proposed California-based Calico solar project fails to meet basic environmental protection requirements and threatens imperiled wildlife, according to Defenders of Wildlife, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club. The groups are filing a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior after failing to reach agreement with the developers and the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to move the project to a location without major environmental conflicts.  

Read our fact sheet to learn more about what’s wrong with the Calico project.

Over the course of three years, the environmental groups met 10 times with the Bureau of Land Management and Calico’s current and former developers, K-Road Power and Tessera Solar (respectively), to urge the developers and Interior to relocate the project to less environmentally sensitive lands. Some of these options included degraded private agricultural lands near the proposed project that would significantly reduce the project’s impacts and bring it more in line with “smart from the start” principles. All these options were rejected.

The proposed project covers 4,000-plus-acres of vital wildlife habitat in the Mojave Desert’s Pisgah Valley – an area four times as large as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park – and is located on key desert tortoise habitat that connects several tortoise recovery areas in the region. Building a solar project here, the groups contend, would threaten at least six other imperiled animals and plants, including golden eagles, burrowing owls and Mojave fringe-toed lizard.

Desert tortoise benefit from smart planning of solar power projects.

Defenders, NRDC and the Sierra Club have previously supported or reached agreements with developers of five of the seven large-scale solar projects approved in California by Interior since 2009. This consensus building effort resulted in better projects that would create almost 3,670 construction jobs, about 525 permanent jobs and nearly 2,600 megawatts of clean power while minimizing impacts on key species and wild lands.

Collaborative solar development efforts among these conservation groups, solar developers and federal, state and local agencies will continue, including a joint effort to help shape Interior’s national solar program that will provide a robust blueprint for successful and responsible solar development on public lands in California and the rest of the West.

Following are statements from leaders of the conservation groups presenting the lawsuit:

Kim Delfino, Defenders' California program director.

“What’s frustrating about the Calico solar project is that the developer and the Bureau of Land Management can avoid the worst impacts to wildlife by being ‘smart from the start’ and moving the project to degraded agricultural lands near the proposed site,” said Kim Delfino, Defenders of Wildlife’s California program director. “If this project moves forward at this location, Calico will irreversibly harm the sensitive Pisgah Valley and the desert tortoise.”

“We drew a line in the sand and the Calico solar project crossed it,” said Johanna Wald, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “My colleagues and I tried very hard to avoid litigation and filed this suit as the last resort. We have focused instead on consensus building to improve as many large-scale solar projects as possible to transition our nation to clean energy sources while protecting wild lands and wildlife. The Calico project, however, is an example of a solar project done wrong from the start.”

“The Pisgah Valley is just too critical for desert tortoise recovery and for a whole suite of important desert species like golden eagles,” said Sierra Club Senior Representative Barbara Boyle. “We need to build renewable energy, but we can find much better places that don’t harm important wildlife and habitat.”

The U.S. Forest Service released today its final forest-planning rule, which will guide the management of 193 million acres of national forests and grasslands across the country.

The following is a statement from Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife:

“The Obama administration has made a very strong commitment to wildlife and land conservation with the release of its final forest-planning rule. The forest policy charts a new course to conserve and restore the health and integrity of these lands and waters, and now the hard work for implementing the rule begins today. Moving forward, it will be critical for the Forest Service to make this vision a reality as it issues implementation policies and begins writing forest plans. Defenders of Wildlife is committed to working with the Forest Service as it transforms its stewardship and wildlife conservation obligations to ensure that our nation’s forests, wildlife and waters are protected for generations to come.”

The new guidelines encourage "smart from the start" wind-energy development.

BREAKING: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) released today voluntary guidelines for wildlife and wind energy development. 

The guidelines could improve on how wind energy development is done today — encouraging the use of the best available scientific information and early public engagement in a project’s planning phase, as well as post-construction wildlife monitoring and a comprehensive strategy for mitigating unavoidable impacts.

“Wind energy is an important part of our clean energy future, but to fully realize the benefits of wind power, projects have to be built in the right ways and right places to avoid and minimize their impacts on wildlife,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, Defenders’ president and CEO. “If implemented correctly, these guidelines will become part of a larger approach that encourages renewable energy companies to be ‘smart from the start’.”

The guidelines apply to private and public lands, imperiled wildlife (like many bat species) not already protected by the Endangered Species or Migratory Bird Treaty acts, and habitats not under FWS’ jurisdiction – lessening the likelihood that wind energy projects will further threaten species in decline.

“Responsible wind energy development means requiring strong standards for protecting wildlife and their habitats. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s wind energy guidelines are a good first step,” she said.

Defenders of Wildlife sat on the federal advisory committee – comprised of scientists, industry representatives, state and federal agencies, tribes, conservation organizations and others – whose recommendations formed the foundation for the new guidelines.

“These guidelines were developed after lengthy discussions with scientists, conservation organizations, wind industry representatives, tribes, state wildlife agencies and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Wind-energy developers who choose to follow the voluntary guidelines will have more certainty that their projects can move forward,” Clark said.

BREAKING: The Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife today sent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service a formal notice of intent to sue over the agency’s denial of Endangered Species Act protection to the rare and vanishing cactus ferruginous pygmy owl.

The groups petitioned to restore the tiny owl’s “endangered” status across the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and northern Mexico in 2007. Although the agency acknowledged that the pygmy owl faces many threats in the Sonoran Desert and that the region is important to the species as a whole, it denied the petition in October 2011.

Today the Arizona population of fewer than 50 birds is perilously small, and pygmy owls in northern Sonora, Mexico are in decline, according to recent surveys.

“There’s no question that the pygmy owl needs Endangered Species Act protection to survive in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona and Mexico,” said Noah Greenwald, primary petition author and endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity, which has been working to protect pygmy owls for 20 years. “The pygmy owl is an indicator for the health of the Sonoran Desert — save this tiny owl and you save the desert, too.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service denied cactus ferruginous pygmy owls endangered species protections last year.

The agency’s denial of protection for the pygmy owl is based on a proposed policy that sets a very high bar for when species that are endangered in portions of their range can receive protection. The Endangered Species Act defines an endangered species as any “in danger of extinction in all or a significant of portion of its range,” meaning that a species need not be at risk everywhere it occurs to qualify for protection. Under the proposed policy, species that are endangered in portions of their range like the pygmy owl only qualify for protection if loss of that portion threatens the survival of the species as a whole. This is a much higher threshold than has been used before.

Although the policy has not yet been finalized, the agency relied on its reasoning to reverse course and deny the pygmy owl protection. In a draft finding obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the agency determined that the Sonoran Desert qualified as a “significant portion of its range” and therefore the pygmy owl warranted protection. In particular, the agency found that Sonoran Desert pygmy owls are important to the adaptability of the species overall because they occur in a hotter, drier setting and thus may be better able to adapt to a warming world. Following development of the new proposed policy, however, the agency reversed course and determined that loss of pygmy owls from the Sonoran Desert would not endanger the species as a whole and denied protection.

Jason Rylander, senior staff attorney

“This irresponsible decision essentially sets the pygmy owl on a steady path to extinction in the U.S. Southwest,” said Jason Rylander, staff attorney with Defenders of Wildlife. “The bald eagle and grizzly bear would never have received protection under the Endangered Species Act if the same policy had been applied to them when they were first considered for listing. We expected more from the Obama administration. This wrongheaded decision should be reversed.”

 The pygmy owl was previously protected as an endangered species in Arizona in 1997 following a 1992 Center petition. In 2003, a federal court ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to better explain its decision that the Arizona population is “distinct” from birds in Mexico, and in 2006, the agency removed protections. As acknowledged by Fish and Wildlife, threats across the Sonoran Desert from urban sprawl, invasive species, fire, drought and other factors are severe. The conservation of dwindling pygmy owl populations in southern Arizona was the initial impetus for the development of Pima County’s landmark Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, which has received broad public support and is currently being finalized.

“Sonoran Desert pygmy owls are unique and deserve our care,” said Greenwald. “Protection of the pygmy owl has proven to be a benefit to the people of southern Arizona by helping to preserve native Sonoran desert habitats that are a source of solace and joy for many.”

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

BREAKING: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public comment on a draft environmental impact statement released today that evaluates a proposed land exchange and road through federally protected Wilderness in Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge that would link the rural village of King Cove to an airport in nearby Cold Bay.

The following is a statement from Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife:

“The Izembek National Wildlife Refuge is no place for a road, and the community of King Cove does not need one to thrive. It is not a choice between protecting people and conserving wildlife. U.S. taxpayers have already provided $37.5 million to King Cove to build a safe, reliable transportation system, including a state-of-the-art seaworthy hovercraft capable of transporting an ambulance to Cold Bay. Since 2007, the hovercraft has been proven effective for more than 30 medical evacuations from King Cove. The continued wellbeing of King Cove’s residents is very important, but more spending, on yet another transportation option, is unnecessary.”

Background:

• As required by Congress in 2009, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public comment on a draft environmental impact statement that evaluates a proposed land exchange and road through federally protected Wilderness in Alaska’s Izembek National Wildlife Refuge that would link the rural village of King Cove to an airport in nearby Cold Bay.
• King Cove continues to lobby Congress for the road despite receiving $37.5 million in federal aid in 1998 to address safety concerns. The funding was earmarked for King Cove to modernize its medical facilities, build a marine terminal and access road, and purchase a seaworthy hovercraft capable of transporting an ambulance to Cold Bay in as few as 20 minutes.
• To build the road, wetlands in the ecological heart of the refuge would have to be stripped of federal Wilderness protections, putting critically important habitat and hundreds of thousands of migrating birds — including 98 percent of Pacific black brants and nearly all of the world’s emperor geese — at risk. These birds depend on Izembek refuge’s eelgrass beds to nest, rest and feed. The area is also used by caribou, brown bears and a number of marine mammals.

The Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1983, and is the only refuge created for the purpose of protecting manatees.

BREAKING: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced the establishment of a manatee refuge in the waters of Florida’s Kings Bay that will expand protections for manatees at Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge.

The new rules designate most of Kings Bay as a slow-speed area, limit high-speed activities in a popular summer water sports area, provide temporary no-entry areas and allow for expansion of “manatee sanctuary” areas where waterborne activities would be prohibited on especially cold days to shelter manatees. The regulations also ban chasing or pursuing manatees, disturbing or touching them while they are feeding or resting, and separating a mother and a calf.

Elizabeth Fleming, Florida representative for Defenders of Wildlife, said, “Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge is the most important wintering site for manatees in northwest Florida and one of the best places to see manatees in the entire state. By adopting these new rules, the Fish and Wildlife Service has taken a first step towards helping the refuge better serve its purpose—to safeguard this vulnerable marine mammal. However, without the removal of the dangerous high-speed water sports zone, manatees and people will continue to be at risk in Kings Bay.”

Manatee deaths reached a record high of 766 in 2010, followed by the death of over 450 animals in 2011. Nearly 400 of these died from exposure during an extended period of cold weather.

Due to its naturally occurring warm water springs, Kings Bay, Fla. has been increasingly popular among wintering manatees. But despite the existing network of sanctuaries and other protections in Kings Bay, it remains a very dangerous waterway as manatees are hit by fast-moving boats and harassed by tourists wanting to interact with them. Having flexibility for managers to increase the area and duration of warm-water sanctuary areas will help ensure that manatees in Kings Bay will survive cold winters.

YOU DID IT! Defenders supporters generated almost 54,000 comments in favor of stronger protections for manatees in Kings Bay. Thanks for all your help!