California senator makes bid to protect the Mojave Desert Defenders of Wildlife supports Senator’s effort, but sees room for improvement in this bill Published on Dec 23, 2009 - 8:28:23 AM
SACRAMENTO, Calif. Dec. 22, 2009 - Although California's Mojave Desert has recently drawn national attention as ground-zero in the nation's transition to renewable power, California Senator Dianne Feinstein aims to put the spotlight back on what makes the Mojave such a remarkable place.
Introducing the California Desert Protection Act of 2010 on Monday, Senator Feinstein seeks to protect important public lands while also streamlining the siting of renewable energy projects in other more appropriate places.
Defenders of Wildlife's California program director Kim Delfino supports the portion of the California Desert Protection Act of 2010 that would designate and protect new wilderness, create two national monuments – the Desert Trails and the Sand to Snow Monuments – and expand Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks as well as the Mojave National Preserve. The bill also adds new desert rivers and streams to the Wild and Scenic Rivers list, including the Surprise Canyon and Amargosa rivers.
"The areas protected in Senator Feinstein's conservation bill will help numerous imperiled animals and declining desert plants, including the threatened desert tortoise, bighorn sheep, Mojave fringe-toed lizard and the iconic Joshua tree," Delfino said. "This bill would provide a huge boost to desert conservation efforts and fulfill a promise to protect these fragile lands."
But Delfino also notes that while the bill would protect large areas from renewable energy development, it would also mandate that certain areas be open to off-road vehicles, a determination which is currently made by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on a case-by-case basis.
"One of the most important reasons to conserve our desert lands is to reduce the pressure placed on imperiled plants and animals," Delfino said. "Our concern is that the bill would create permanent off-road vehicle areas and take away the flexibility from the BLM in determining what areas should be open and what areas should be closed to this destructive use. Off-road vehicles can permanently scar the fragile desert with erosive tire tracks that fragment habitat and drive wildlife away from these important places."
The bill also includes incentives to direct renewable development on to disturbed private lands and away from sensitive public lands, marking an important step forward in smart siting of energy projects while addressing global warming – one of the most dangerous threats now facing desert wildlife.
"This bill provides a good start at addressing some of the difficult issues surrounding the siting and permitting of renewable energy projects, timely processing of applications and coordination between federal agencies and states in wildlife matters," Delfino said. "But we do have some concerns over the creation of mitigation zones on public lands to offset potentially damaging development on private lands. With the inevitable impacts from global warming on the desert, it is imperative that we protect the right areas for wildlife to live in the future."
Delfino added: "We need clean, renewable energy. But renewable energy facilities should be sited in the most sustainable way possible – near existing transmission lines, on fallowed farmland, or on the region's plentiful former industrial sites and abandoned mines. And mitigation zones need to be part of a larger desert renewable energy conservation plan. Poorly located clean energy projects that destroy important wildlife habitat aren't really ‘green.'"
Website: www.defenders.org
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