Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Cindy Hoffman, Vice President of Communications

©Nathan Ferdinandt

This is the time of year when everyone is making New Year’s resolutions. Mine? To save energy, wildlife and the environment!

And thanks to Solar City, I can check this one off the list: DONE. They made it so easy! After hearing a pitch from one of their representatives at Defenders a few months ago, I was intrigued. So I contacted them to see if my house was a good candidate for solar energy. They did a quick Google Maps search for my house and said it was a great candidate. Next, they sent their staff out to take a closer look and sure enough, my entire roof could be covered in solar panels. Not only that, but for just a little bit of money up front, I get to lock in the price I pay for my solar energy for the next 20 years. So while local utility bills go up at about 6-10% a year depending on where you live, I have locked in at a rate that won’t increase. Solar City is very flexible, so don’t let costs dissuade you from contacting them. They even have a deal for no money down that is worth learning more about.

The process was super easy. My husband and I signed the contract and Solar City did the rest, including dealing with all of the permitting with the city and coordinating with my local utility company. Within a month (although they say it can take up to 4 months for the installation) they scheduled an appointment to set the panels. It took two days to get the panels up; they scheduled the inspection with the city within the week, and once the paperwork goes through with my local utility company, I will be running on clean, green, solar energy! It’s also good for wildlife. Using my rooftop for renewable energy reduces the need to build large solar installations in or around areas important for wildlife habitat.

I created a video of the installation so you can see what the panels and other equipment looks like. Check it out below and, if you are interested, contact Solar City for a personal consultation. The whole process was quick and easy. And as an added bonus, if you mention Defenders of Wildlife, Solar City will donate $400 to help advance our mission to conserve and protect wildlife.

Make a New Year’s resolution that you can keep this year. Visit Solar City today and tell them Defenders of Wildlife sent you.

Coast to Coast” is a summer blog series highlighting some of America’s most imperiled wildlife. By using the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s new state-by-state endangered species map, we will tell stories about native plants and animals in unique landscapes where Defenders will be focusing its conservation efforts in coming years.

From southern California to eastern Arizona, the Mojave Desert covers nearly 25,000 square miles–more land than the state of West Virginia! It is home to famous American landmarks like Las Vegas, Hoover Dam and Death Valley National Park. Once seen as an inhospitable wasteland, the desert is actually a rich and thriving natural landscape. Unique plants such as the Mojave sage and Mojave prickly poppy make this their home, along with more well- known species such as Joshua trees and yucca plants. Even some threatened species can be found in the area such as Mexican spotted owl, Californian brown pelican and most notably the desert tortoise.

Desert tortoises have been wandering the desert for millions of years. Reaching lengths of up to 15 inches long, they are quite large for a reptile. These hardy critters live up to 80 years. Taking drastic measures in dry climate, these critters can go for a year or two without water. Most of the moisture they do get comes from the herbs and grasses they eat.

While hardy, desert tortoises are hiders. They spend 95% of their lives in underground burrows to beat the desert heat. Their time spent above the surface is kept to spring and summer in order to take advantage of fresh food. Unfortunately, these tough tortoises can’t hide from us humans and, as a result, have been disappearing at an alarming rate.

The Mojave Desert population is facing the greatest risk from habitat degradation, urban sprawl, poaching and various other threats. Overall, their numbers have dropped 90% since the 1950s, leaving behind tortoise populations that are far less dense. Where once 200 adults roamed in a square mile, now only five or six can be found. As a result, the desert tortoise was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1980. While progress has been made in conserving this species as described in the Fish and Wildlife Service podcast below, in recent years they are facing a slew of new threats.

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One of these threats that the terrific tortoise and other desert species are facing is reckless renewable energy development. With vast tracts of flat land and copious amounts of sunshine, the Mojave Desert may seem like the perfect place for solar power plants. But it is also a vital and sensitive habitat for many native species, many of which are slipping toward the brink of extinction.

Defenders supports clean energy, but we’re also fighting to make sure that solar and wind projects are built “smart from the start” to ensure that imperiled species still have a chance to recover. For example, earlier this year Defenders and several other groups intervened in the Pisgah Valley of the Mojave Desert to protect endangered wildlife. We sued the U.S. Department of Interior to stop construction of a solar farm that would have impacted critical habitat for desert tortoises. This area provides crucial pathways that link different tortoise recovery areas together. Other animals such as the burrowing owl and the golden eagle depend on this area too.

As green technology joins our energy grid, it is critical that these projects allow important wildlife conservation efforts to continue.  By building close to cities and making use of existing infrastructure, we can have clean energy that benefits people without harming wildlife. These are the kind of win-win solutions that can provide American with cleaner, greener energy without trampling on tortoises.

Building solar “smart from the start” just makes sense

The U.S. Department of the Interior finalized new plans for solar energy development on public lands in the west on Tuesday after a prolonged joint effort among stakeholders and government officials to create environmentally responsible and economically beneficial renewable energy development guidelines.The large-scale plan, known as the Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement or SPEIS, will now set the stage for the next generation of renewable energy development in the West. And it will do so in a way that protects wildlife and habitat.

Proponents of solar energy have long sought guidelines for responsible development that would protect the interests of vulnerable wildlife/wildlands while also providing economic incentives for continued growth. With the announcement of this plan, the Interior has clearly emphasized that kind of “smart from the start” mindset, making it clear that protecting the environment will need to be a strong factor in future endeavors involving solar energy in the western U.S.

Because the release of the statement is so fresh, analysis will soon begin on the part of numerous organizations involved, including Defenders, to assess its various components. Keeping a close eye on this ongoing project is a necessary element to ensure we continue to develop renewable energy “smart from the start.” For now, however, the Interior’s announced plans show that long-term changes are on the way that could impact the environmental footprint of solar energy development for the better.

To read more about the solar plan, click on http://www.defenders.org/press-release/interior-unveils-first-ever-national-solar-energy-plan-public-lands

Approval by Imperial County officials means work can begin on what will be the world’s largest solar farm.

The project will produce enough electricity to power more than 200,000 households and create about 700 construction jobs.

Conservation groups say they support it because it isn’t being built on environmentally sensitive public lands. Kim Delfino, California program director for Defenders of Wildlife, says the project is a great example of the “right way” to develop solar energy.

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Listen to Defenders’ Kim Delfino on California News Service radio.

“There’s a lot of land out there. They don’t need to be going into these more intact, pristine areas. We think that, with good planning and good information, they can choose good, low-impact sites.”

Burrowing owls like this one are threatened by the Calico solar project.

Delfino calls the proposed California-based Calico solar project near Barstow an example of the “wrong way” to develop solar. She says the project fails to meet basic environmental-protection requirements and threatens fragile wildlife.

The Calico project covers more than 4,000 acres of vital wildlife habitat in the Mojave Desert’s Pisgah Valley, she says, and is located on key habitat for the desert tortoise.

“Despite the fact that we have been meeting with the developer of this site for the last three years, urging them to move the project because of the conflicts with wildlife, they’ve chosen to move ahead.”

Defenders of Wildlife, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club are filing a federal lawsuit in an attempt to stop the Calico project.

Lori Abbott, Public News Service – CA

SAN DIEGO – Four major conservation groups today announced their support for a set of proposed large-scale solar power projects in Imperial County, Calif., because of the project meets the need to promote well-located clean energy development, demonstrate the care taken to address wildlife concerns, and create good union jobs. The Sierra Club, Audubon California, Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council all support the projects, which the Imperial County Board of Supervisors approved today.

When completed, the Mt. Signal, Calexico I and Calexico II solar projects under development by 8minutenergy will produce about 600 megawatts of electricity each year, enough to power more than 200,000 households. The projects are located on privately owned, disturbed land currently used to grow highly water-intensive landscaping grasses. The biological effects from the projects are significantly less than proposed renewable energy projects on environmentally sensitive public lands. These Imperial County projects show that it is possible to develop viable, cost-effective projects without sacrificing our precious desert wildlands.

“By choosing a project site with very few impacts to wildlife, 8minuteenergy has shown that renewable energy can be developed quickly and without sacrificing sensitive wildlife and wild lands,” said Kim Delfino, Defenders of Wildlife’s California program director. “These projects are shining examples of how to develop solar energy right.”

Read the groups’ full statement.

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.”