A monumental flight over Mojave Trails

Mojave Desert Land Trust aerial tour shows splendor of national monument whose status could be reassessed

Amboy Crater is a significant geological feature of the Mojave Trails National Monument. Last week, the Mojave Desert Land Trust hosted an aerial tour as part of the third anniversary of the monument. [James Quigg, Daily Press]

By Matthew Cabe
Victor Valley Daily News

PALM SPRINGS — Storm clouds hovered over the city and patches of rain fell from above the nearby San Jacinto Mountains, but two Mojave Desert Land Trust officials arrived at the international airport here last week ready for a celebration.

Staff at the Joshua Tree-based nonprofit recently completed plans to commemorate the upcoming third anniversary of Mojave Trails, Sand to Snow and Castle Mountains national monuments.

All three were established Feb. 12, 2016, by former President Barack Obama through use of the Antiquities Act. Combined, they encompass nearly 1.8 million acres in the Mojave, Colorado and Sonoran deserts.

To offer a comprehensive view, MDLT partnered with the nonprofit EcoFlight for a series of flyovers within the Mojave Trails National Monument, which boasts 1.6 million acres and is the largest national monument in the 48 contiguous states, according to MDLT Communications Director Jessica Dacey.

Shortly before 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dacey and MDLT Education Coordinator Adam Henne briefed a group of passengers that included a Daily Press reporter and photographer.

“You get a bit of a buzz when you go up there,” Dacey said. “Especially coming from this angle ... you start to understand the seamlessness between the parks.”

Tuesday’s flight traveled first above Joshua Tree National Park, then over Sheep Hole Pass, which served as the Cessna 210′s entrance into Mojave Trails.

For Dacey and others, part of the monument’s importance is its function as a wildlife corridor connecting the national park and the Mojave National Preserve, the more than 1.5-million-acre swath of National Park Service land between interstates 15 and 40.

Within the monument, the Cady Mountains serve as one of the best areas in the Mojave Desert to see bighorn sheep, according to MDLT.

The North American population of the muscular animal with curved horns was once estimated in the millions. By 1900, human encroachment diminished bighorn sheep numbers to several thousand, National Wildlife Federation statistics show. Conservation efforts have since brought those numbers up to nearly 8,000.

Bonanza Spring, located near the monument’s northern border, is the only wetland for 1,000 square miles. Like the Cady Mountains, the spring is also home to bighorns and 70 bird species.

Dacey said the habitat connectivity created with the monument’s establishment allows many animals to roam, helps increase their populations and protects plant life they need to survive.

There are also unique historical and cultural aspects to the monument’s significance, she said.

Mojave Trails is home to the longest undeveloped section of U.S. Route 66. Preservation of the “Mother Road,” according to the World Monuments Fund, would equal positive economic effects like “sustainable tourism.”

The monument also includes some of the best-preserved sites from the World War II-era Desert Training Center where, under the command of Gen. George S. Patton, more than a million troops were trained on 18,000 square miles for desert combat in North Africa.

Deep within the vast expanse visible through the Cessna’s starboard-side windows, another geographical feature appeared, albeit inconspicuously from 2,500 feet above the desert floor.

The Cadiz Dunes Wilderness spans nearly 20,000 acres in the heart of the monument. The dunes appear to “hum in the wind,” Dacey told passengers.

“I think they’re more majestic than the Kelso Dunes in the Preserve,” she said.

Bruce Gordon, who piloted the Cessna, nodded in agreement from behind his aviators. Gordon founded EcoFlight in 2002 to advocate for environmental protection via programs and aerial visuals that expand public awareness of wild lands.

He couldn’t help but take his hands off the Cessna’s yoke to capture photographs of the pristine topography below. He used the 80-minute flight to share his own knowledge of the region.

Several concerns were noted, as well.

One, MDLT contends, is Cadiz Inc.’s planned water project, which would pull 50,000-acre-feet of water a year from an ancient aquifer beneath the Mojave Desert. The water would later be sold in Southern California.

Cadiz owns roughly 34,000 acres within Mojave Trails, Dacey said. Company officials have said the pumping would not harm the environment. Rather, the project would conserve surplus water lost to evaporation at nearby dry lakes.

Cadiz’s research maintains that Bonanza Spring would not be impacted by pumping. Other research published in 2018 called the company’s findings into question and said the project would threaten Bonanza Spring, according to MDLT, which funded some of the research.

Cadiz CEO and President Scott Slater has stated the company is confident of no interconnection between groundwater and water levels in Bonanza Spring, the company’s website shows.

MDLT officials say the project could harm the bighorns that use Bonanza Spring. Dacey said a pipeline for the project has not yet been constructed.

Gordon navigated the plane toward Amboy Crater, situated about three miles southwest of Roy’s Motel and Cafe. At 80,000 years old, Amboy is “North America’s youngest volcano,” Dacey said.

MDLT is one of several environmental groups working to secure Mojave Trails’ status, which Dacey said is “in limbo.”

In April 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke — who resigned his post last month — to review national monuments of at least 100,000 acres that have been designated since 1996.

Trump’s goal was to determine whether the monuments needed reduction or elimination. Mojave Trails was subsequently included for review. Trump called the monuments, particularly Bear Ears National Monument in Utah, a “massive federal land grab.”

An initial report released in December 2017 included changes to 10 monuments. That same month, Trump signed proclamations that scaled back Bear Ears, as well as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In doing so, he declared, “Public lands will once again be for public use.”

Mojave Trails has not been altered, but Dacey said it’s never officially been declared safe.

When the monument was established, a management plan had to be drawn up by this month. That process was halted amid the Interior Department’s review. MDLT is part of a coalition working on a community proposal for a management plan. Dacey said the expectation is for it to guide future planning for Mojave Trails.

In 2016, visitors to Joshua Tree National Park more than doubled to over 2.5 million, prompting Park Superintendent David Smith to declare it was being “loved to death.” Dacey said attendance now is well over 3 million per year.

Amid the rise in popularity, as well as a massive clean-up effort underway in the damaged park following the partial federal government shutdown, groups are hoping to increase awareness of places like Mojave Trails as alternative destinations.

The question MDLT wants people to ask is, “What do these other public lands have to offer?” Dacey said.

From overhead, the answer seems simple enough.

Joshua Tree National Park poised to grow by 20,000 acres

Southern California´s tallest peak, San Gorgonio Mountain, can be seen from some parts of Joshua Tree National Park. (Staff Photo by Sarah Alvarado/ San Bernardino Sun)

By Jim Steinberg
The San Bernardino Sun

TWENTYNINE PALMS -- Joshua Tree National Park, the nation’s 15th largest, is poised to grow by more than 20,000 acres early next year.

After a lengthy study and environmental assessment, the National Park Service recommends adding more than 20,000 acres of federal, state and private lands to the boundary of Joshua Tree National Park.

The majority of the land — all of it in Riverside County — is in the Colorado Desert, a low elevation and area too hot with too little rain for the park’s iconic plant, the Joshua tree.

This land, which includes the Eagle Mountain and Chuckwalla Valley areas, is of vital importance for the bighorn sheep and desert tortoise populations, a National Park Service statement said.

The area also includes prehistoric and historic resources that expand on the national park’s cultural themes and contains areas important for maintaining Joshua Tree’s wilderness values, the statement said.

The earliest this addition to Joshua Tree National Park could occur is in late February, said David Smith, park superintendent.

Originally, the land was included in the creation of Joshua Tree National Monument by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, but removed for mineral extraction activities in 1950.

During its mining heyday, iron ore was sent by train from the Eagle Mountain area to the Kaiser Fontana steel mill, where much of the finished product traveled by rail to shipbuilding activities in the Port of Long Beach, Smith said.

Major mining activities ceased in the area in 1983, the Park Service said in a statement.

In 1989, the area was proposed for a landfill. After decades of litigation, the landfill proposal was withdrawn in 2012.

The Park Service and federal Bureau of Land Management, which now administers most of the land, will evaluate public comments on the proposed transfer of the land from the bureau to the Park Service.

If the Department of the Interior determines that it is appropriate to proceed with the transfer, then it will authorize the publication of a public land order in the Federal Register.

A public hearing to discuss these proposed actions will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Jan. 18 on the UC Riverside Palm Desert campus, Smith said.

Adding this land to Joshua Tree National Park also could be accomplished through congressional Action, Smith said.

County should say no to Soda Mountain solar

COMMENTARY

By Jacob Overson
Desert Dispatch

Growing up in one of the California desert’s last remaining ranching families instilled in me a deep love of open spaces, wildlife and the independent people who call the desert home. My family taught me to work hard, make decisions carefully and steward the fragile desert ecosystem.

As manager of the Baker Community Services District (Baker CSD) I call on 1st District Supervisor Robert Lovingood and the other San Bernardino County Supervisors to oppose the Soda Mountain Solar Project.

The Soda Mountain Solar Project undermines our county’s interests, harms communities, jeopardizes a national park unit and contradicts our county renewable energy ordinance. Thousands of San Bernardino County residents and numerous local organizations, businesses, scientists, recreation groups, and gateway communities vocally oppose the project.

Soda Mountain Solar has been forced on the County and local communities by outside interests seeking their own political and financial goals, while we deal with the environmental consequences.

Political appointees from the Department of Interior’s Washington office railroaded this through approvals despite the agency’s local desert staff saying “no.” San Bernardino County was thrown under the bus so that the Obama Administration could claim progress on their renewable energy development goals.

Meanwhile, San Francisco-based Bechtel Group, a multi-national corporation, capitalized on the motivations of the Interior Department and rammed the project through a federal environmental review process. We recently found out they immediately plan to sell it to another San Francisco company, Regenerate Power.

Once again, our county and local communities have to pay the price as we watch San Francisco companies play “Monopoly” and literally manipulate our landscape and way of life. Luckily we can stop this game right here at home before the company passes go and collects hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money.

The National Park Service (NPS) remains opposed to the project as it would irrevocably harm the Mojave National Preserve. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has expressed grave concerns related to the irreversible harm to wildlife corridors and bighorn sheep. Those who live in Baker are concerned about how the project’s groundwater pumping will impact our community’s water resources.

Finally, our community is concerned that the project’s degradation of national park resources will harm the local economy. According to NPS statistics, in 2015 there were almost 600,000 visitors to the Mojave National Preserve who spent over $33 million and their economic contribution directly and indirectly created 486 jobs throughout the region. We have a vested interest in protecting the Preserve’s resources and ensuring that it continues to be a destination for tourists who love wildlife and wilderness.

The manner in which the Interior Department has recklessly pushed this project forward raises fundamental questions about how they will implement the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP).

San Bernardino County Supervisor Lovingood and the rest of our Board of Supervisors can support sound renewable energy policy by rejecting Soda Mountain Solar’s water permit and refusing to certify it. The county should seize this opportunity to take back control from Washington and San Francisco interests on behalf of their desert residents.

Jacob Overson grew up ranching in the California desert and is currently the manager of the Baker Community Services District.

Feds approve controversial remote desert solar plant near Baker

A bighorn sheep climbs the terrain of the Mojave National Preserve, about a mile northeast of the proposed site for the Soda Mountain Solar project on Tuesday, July 21 2015 near Baker. (Stan Lim)

By Jim Steinberg
The San Bernardino Sun

Over objections of environmentalists, the Obama administration on Tuesday approved a 287-megawatt solar energy plant for a remote part of the Mojave Desert.

The 1,767-acre project being developed by Bechtel Corp. is located on land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, about six miles southwest of Baker.

“Soda Mountain is another step forward toward diversifying our nation’s energy portfolio and meeting the state of California’s growing demand for renewable energy,” said BLM Director Neil Kornze.

The project is consistent with BLM’s landscape approach for the California desert, which supports careful development of renewable energy while protecting the resources and places that make the desert special, Kornze said in a statement.

“The approval of Soda Mountain Solar is a stark contradiction by the Obama administration,” Theresa Pierno, president of the National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement.

“Less than two months ago, we lauded the administration as conservation heroes after they designated national monuments in the desert to protect and connect important landscapes,” she said.

Allowing the Soda Mountain project to proceed “inhibits national park wildlife from migrating and adapting to a changing climate,” Pierno added.

The project will provide enough power for more than 86,000 homes and help toward meeting Obama’s Climate Action Plan goal of 20,000 megawatts of power derived from renewable energy project on public lands by 2020, the BLM statement said.

The agency said it spent more than three years consulting and working with a variety of federal and state partners, members of the public and others to develop a “comprehensive environmental analysis” of the Soda Mountain project area and devise a project design that preserves scenic vistas, reduces potential impacts to wildlife in the area and protects groundwater.

The agency said its approved design removes an array of solar panels originally approved north of the 15 Freeway, eliminating most of the visual effects of the project within the Mojave National Preserve.

Last year, the project was reduced from the originally proposed 2,222 acres.

The agency also said its decision ensures the project will not block future efforts to re-establish bighorn sheep movement across the interstate highway.

But Ileene Anderson, Los Angeles-based senior scientist for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the massive solar array would block the “last, best linkage” for desert bighorn sheep between the Mojave National Preserve and the Soda Mountain Wilderness Study Area.

Renewable-energy generation “has to be done right,” she said.

The smaller, revised project is located in an area of disturbed lands including an active utility corridor for oil and gas pipelines, electricity transmission and communication lines and facilities, BLM said.

However, the National Parks Conservation Association says the project is in the “undeveloped” South Soda Mountain region immediately adjacent to Mojave National Preserve.

Francis Canavan, a Bechtel spokesman, acknowledged that the company doesn’t yet have an agreement to sell the electricity from the project, but he added that talks are underway with potential buyers.

Bechtel also does not have a signed agreement to use the power lines that run past the project site, which are owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Getting permission to use Los Angeles’ power lines, however, “shouldn’t be a problem,” Canavan said.

BLM rejectes application for Silurian Valley energy project

Kailah Miles,11, of Apple Valley and her brother Rex, 8, walk back to their family's campsite at the Dumont Dunes in the Silurian Valley. The BLM rejected an energy project in the area. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

By JULIE CART
Los Angeles Times

The Bureau of Land Management on Thursday denied a Spanish company's application to build a controversial renewable energy facility in the Mojave Desert's remote Silurian Valley, deciding the sprawling project “would not be in the public interest.”

The closely watched decision is considered a bellwether for how the federal agency will handle future requests to develop renewable energy projects outside established development areas.

The company had planned a side-by-side wind and solar facility. Thursday's decision applies only to the solar portion of the project. The wind energy aspect is still in the planning stages.

Jim Kenna, the BLM's California director, made the decision, finding that Iberdrola Renewables' proposal would have industrialized 24 square miles of “a largely undisturbed valley that supports wildlife, an important piece of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail, and recreational and scenic values.”

Kenna said he had been discussing the matter for weeks with field personnel and found the evidence “pretty persuasive.”

He cited concerns that the project would degrade the quality of the wilderness surrounding the site, located between two national parks. He also noted potential hazards to the desert tortoise and other impacts that could not be mitigated.

“It was fairly clear to me,” he said.

Iberdrola Renewables had sought permission to build its project using a “variance” process. Had it been approved, it would have been the first major exception to federal land managers' “guided development” approach across more than 22 million acres of California desert. Under the policy, companies are encouraged to develop in areas that have been pre-approved for projects, where there would be less environmental or wildlife conflict.

Kenna said the variance process was intended to be rigorous. In denying the application, no other message was intended other than the specific project was unsuitable for the specific site, he said.

Iberdrola began the application process three years ago and had envisioned completing construction by December.

In a statement, Iberdrola said it was weighing whether to appeal the decision to the U. S. Department of Interior.

“It is unfortunate that the variance process is enabling unsubstantiated discretion in advance of a proper National Environmental Policy Act review that should be based on clear and understandable predictable requirements,” the statement said.

But the BLM decided that the project would have “too great of an impact on the resources.”

Among the specific concerns the BLM noted were that the facility would disrupt migration corridors critical to bighorn sheep and other wildlife.

“We are quite pleased that the BLM made this decision,” said Kim Delfino, the California program director for Defenders of Wildlife. “It's encouraging that they are taking those criteria seriously.”

The wind and solar plants that Iberdrola proposed would have been encircled by protected lands. The entire project site that the company proposed sits atop the Old Spanish Trail, a historic trail managed by the National Park Service, which opposed the project.

In its application, Iberdrola said the plants would create 300 construction jobs and generate about 400 megawatts of power.

The BLM is under pressure to meet the administration's goal of generating 20,000 megawatts of power from federal land by 2020. There have been 460 applications for renewable-energy-related projects in California since 2007, Kenna said. The BLM has approved 18 applications.

Mojave Desert not ideal for massive solar project

Soda Mountain is a proposed solar project seen from the air on Wednesday, February 5, 2014. Several big solar and wind energy projects are moving forward on environmentally sensitive public land despite government land use planning efforts designed to focus such projects on less important habitat. (Kurt Miller)

OPINION

By CURT SAUER and J.T. REYNOLDS
The Press-Enterprise

The father of American conservation, Aldo Leopold, said, “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” If so, the proposed construction of the Soda Mountain Solar project one quarter mile from the boundary of the Mojave National Preserve, our third largest national park site in the contiguous 48 states and a biologically diverse gem, is dead wrong.

The potential damage the proposed Soda Mountain Solar Project stands to inflict on Mojave National Preserve’s fragile desert ecosystem has been well-chronicled. The 4,000-acre development would block bighorn sheep from moving between nearby desert mountain ranges and preclude reestablishing a critical wildlife corridor between the South and North Soda Mountains. Migrating and resident birds, attracted by the area’s numerous seeps and springs, would likely be injured or killed if they collide with photovoltaic panels.

Unobstructed views from the Mojave National Preserve, which surveys demonstrate are one of tourists’ key reasons for visiting the California desert national parks, would be marred. Desert tortoise habitat would be bulldozed. The project’s groundwater pumping could dry up springs along Zzyzx Road that are used by bighorn sheep, as well as harm the water quantity and quality of Soda Spring, threatening the survival of the federally endangered Mohave tui chub.

As planned, the project would include a 350-megawatt solar power facility, with a solar array spanning approximately 2,000 acres of the Mojave Desert, straddling northern and southern points of Interstate 15, west of Baker. According to the project’s website, the facility would produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of 170,000 homes. However, the project proposal has not identified a buyer for the electricity and some of the transmission lines running through the area are already at maximum capacity.

However, there has been little focus on the project’s adverse impacts to the Zzyzx Desert Studies Center and the Mojave National Preserve’s environmental education programs. The Desert Studies Center is managed by California State University and is nestled in a refuge of natural desert ponds, dry lakes and foothills just to the east of the proposed project. It draws students and experts from around the world to conduct research, teach about the wonders of the Mojave Desert and experience the pristine desert environment. As former superintendents of Joshua Tree and Death Valley national parks, we are well aware of the benefits of such hands-on educational programs in building stewardship and teaching people about the value of the desert.

The Mojave National Preserve also uses this facility for environmental education programs that reach underserved schoolchildren from the Barstow area. Elementary and middle school children search for scorpions with ultraviolet lights, learn about the special adaptations of desert plants and animals, acquire knowledge about Native American cultures and gaze up in wonder at the dark, starry night skies.

Consider for a moment that if the Soda Mountain Solar Project is built, these young students will escape the urban environment of Barstow only to encounter an industrial zone next to a national park. Is this really the message we want to send to our youth, especially when better options exist?

The project harms the very resources that are the foundation and instructional basis for these programs. Soda Mountain Solar would create light, glare and thousands of acres of photovoltaic panels, marring scenic vistas and night skies. Air quality stands to be diminished by fugitive dust from construction. Drawdown of critical seeps and springs would impair the fragile desert ecosystem. The Soda Mountain Solar Project’s impact to the human dimensions of the desert ecosystem has not yet been thoroughly examined.

Aldo Leopold thought that one of our outstanding scientific discoveries was not technological, but our understanding of the complexity of the land. Leopold aptly observed, “Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land.” Far from being harmonious, the Soda Mountain Solar Project strikes a dissonant chord with those of us who have worked hard to preserve and protect special places like the Mojave National Preserve because it threatens this country’s considerable investment in our desert public lands and national parks.

We ask U.S. Bureau of Land Management Director Neil Kornze and state BLM Director Jim Kenna to relocate the project to an area that will not adversely impact our desert communities, educational programs, or ecosystems.

Curt Sauer was superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park from 2002-10 and J.T. Reynolds was superintendent of Death Valley National Park from 2001-09.

Park service says project would harm Mojave preserve

Soda Lake in the Mojave National Preserve is the point where the Mojave River, which flows from the San Bernardino Mountains, reaches its end. A commercial solar project planned within a mile of the lake bed has triggered worries about water depletion in spring-fed ponds and the fate of an endangered fish, among other concerns. (DAVID DANELSKI)

By David Danelski
Riverside Press-Enterprise

The National Park Service has lodged strongly worded objections to a proposed 6.5-square-mile solar development about a half-mile from the Mojave National Preserve, saying the project would harm wildlife and suggesting that it be built elsewhere.

Preserve Superintendent Stephanie Dubois submitted an eight-page letter to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the public land where the Soda Mountain solar project is planned and which is handling the environmental analysis of the development.

A subsidiary of the Bechtel Corp., one of the world’s largest construction companies, wants to put solar panels on both sides of Interstate 15 about six miles south of Baker and just outside the northwest corner of the national preserve, where the bright white Soda Lake is a striking landmark. The lake, mostly dry, is bordered by springs, seeps and ponds, providing a small oasis for wildlife.

Dubois' letter says the BLM failed to adequately examine the project's potential to harm groundwater, threatened and endangered species, and scenic views, among other issues. The project would be detrimental to the desert tortoise, bighorn sheep and protected birds in the area and could reduce water supplies that support one of the few populations of an endangered fish, she wrote.

“We urge the BLM to reconsider the potential for this project to be sited on other BLM lands, private lands, or other degraded lands where renewable energy projects would present fewer adverse impacts to natural and cultural resources,” Dubois wrote in her March 3 letter to the BLM.

BLM spokeswoman Martha Maciel said Dubois’ letter is just one of many written comments the agency received as part of the process to evaluate Bechtel’s requests for a right-of-way permit the company needs in order to build on public land.

"We will consider all the comments and adjust our analysis where appropriate," said Maciel, reached by phone at her office in Sacramento.

National Park Service Slams Solar Project Near Mojave Preserve

Part of the Soda Mountain Solar Project site (Courtesy © Michael Gordon)

by Chris Clarke
KCET.org

The National Park Service isn't happy about a proposal to build a large solar facility on almost 4,200 acres next door to the Mojave National Preserve. The agency is citing the project's threats to wildlife, rare plants, groundwater, air quality, and wilderness characteristics of the 1.6 million acre unit.

The Soda Mountain Solar Project, which would be built by Bechtel on either side of Interstate 15 along the northwest edge of the Preserve, would pose serious threats to bighorn sheep, desert tortoises, migratory birds, and one of the rarest fish in the world, according to a comment letter on the project's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) filed by Preserve Superintendent Stephanie Dubois.

The project would generate a maximum of 350 megawatts of power by putting solar panels on more than half the project's total footprint: about 2,200 acres. But environmental advocates are saying that the project's damage to the Preserve isn't worth the energy the plant would generate -- especially considering no one seems to be interested in buying the power.

Due in part to the project's remoteness and lack of transmission capacity despite two lines running near the site, Bechtel has been unable to secure an agreement with any utility to buy power from the Soda Mountain project. "We believe this is the poster child for ill-sited projects in the California desert," said National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) representative Seth Shteir in an interview with Greenwire's Scott Streater. "We think this project has so many negative impacts to the natural resources in the Mojave National Preserve and adjacent wilderness study areas that it sort of defies common sense to site the project there."

Among the issues identified in the National Park Service comment letter are blocking a future migration corridor for the Preserve's bighorn sheep into the North Soda Mountains. Pointing out that bighorn sheep tend to avoid any kind of human-built infrastructure even in the absence of humans themselves, NPS states that "[i]f the project moves forward, bighorn sheep migration between the north and south areas of the project will likely be permanently impeded."

That's a problem, as the bighorn herd south of the project site, in the hills near the Desert Studies Center at Zzyzx, are one of a handful not yet exposed to the pneumonia currently ravaging sheep populations elsewhere in the Preserve. Sealing off the sheep's possible northern migration corridor could seal their fate if the pneumonia epidemic approaches from the south.

NPS also expressed concern about the project's effect on the endangered Mohave tui chub, whose sole native, non-transplanted population can be found in MC Spring a few miles downhill from the project. There are more of the chub in the artificial pond Lake Tuendae at Zzyzx. Bechtel intends to pump up to 60 acre-feet of groundwater from the project site each year to use for washing solar panels: if that affects the flow of groundwater that supplies MC Spring and Lake Tuendae, that's a problem for the fish.

The BLM argues in the project's DEIS that since it's not known what effect pumping would have on local groundwater, that there won't be a problem. NPS disagrees. "Without conclusive knowledge about the hydrology of the Soda Mountain Valley aquifer," says Dubois in the Park Service's comments, "the Project risks the consequence of irreversible damage to the habitat and the viability of this highly endangered species."

NPS also criticizes the project's likely impact on air quality from fugitive dust emissions, dark night skies, and risk of all those solar panels to the flocks of migrating birds regularly drawn to the area's permanent and ephemeral wetlands.

The Park Service ends its comments by asking for a meeting with BLM staff to discuss the project further. The group Basin and Range Watch reports partway down this page that the BLM's maps of the Soda Mountains project used in public meetings last month didn't show the boundaries of the Mojave National Preserve, so it's probably a good thing that NPS reminded BLM that they, and the Preserve, exist.

Opposition Mounts to Solar Project On Mojave Preserve Boundary

View of the North Array site's currently undisturbed desert tortoise habitat from the Soda Mountains. (Courtesy Basin and Range Watch)

by Chris Clarke
KCET.org

If discussion at a recent gathering of activists is any indication, a nearly 4,200-acre solar project for a valley adjoining National Park land in California's Mojave desert will encounter near-unanimous opposition from green groups.

The Soda Mountain Solar project, described earlier here at ReWire, would place 358 megawatts' worth of solar panels on 2,557 acres on either side of Interstate 15 between Baker and Barstow. The project would also include about 1,600 acres of support infrastructure, including roads, operations buildings, and an electrical substation. Depending on the plant's configuration, the project's East Array would be built as little as a quarter mile from the boundary of the Mojave National Preserve, a 1.6 million-acre National Park Service unit, near Zzyzx, a former resort turned desert research center.

That perceived encroachment on the Preserve, along with the project's potential effects on desert bighorn sheep and other wildlife, prompted strong statements of opposition at a Sierra Club-sponsored meeting of California and Nevada desert activists over the weekend in Shoshone, a nearby community outside Death Valley National Park.

"This is just a bad project," David Lamfrom, California Desert Senior Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, told the gathering on Saturday. "It's a dinosaur. There's no justification for building a solar power plant in this spot, where it will infringe on the Preserve and damage some of the best bighorn habitat in the Mojave."

Lamfrom's charges came during a presentation on the project at the February 15-16 meeting of the Sierra Club's California-Nevada Desert Committee, which draws desert activists from a wide range of organizations and locales four times a year to discuss topics ranging from wilderness to landfill proposals.

Lamfrom told the group that activists had thought they'd killed a previous version of the project, proposed by the New York-based firm Caithness Energy. Facing opposition based on proximity to the Preserve and the project's likely effects on desert wildlife, as well as problems with selling the project's power based on insufficient transmission through the area, Caithness quietly backed off on Soda Mountain Solar. "But then Caithness sold the project to Bechtel," said Lamfrom. "Bechtel has deep enough pockets to risk pushing it through, so it came back to life."

The project would also abut the Soda Mountains Wilderness Study Area (WSA), a haven for bighorn sheep. The corridor between Zzyzx in the Preserve and that WSA has long been one of the best places in the area for watching bighorn, who have so far escaped the outbreaks of pneumonia that have killed off sheep elsewhere in the Preserve. And according to comments submitted by Mojave National Preserve superintendent Stephanie Dubois during the project's scoping phase, a series of underpasses in the area serve as relatively safe and efficient wildlife crossings for the sheep. The project would block those crossings.

Other wildlife in the area include the federally Threatened desert tortoise, the Mojave fringe-toed lizard, burrowing owls, desert kit foxes, and golden eagles. Water use by the project for cleaning solar panels raises another concern: groundwater pumping will likely lower the local water table. If that pumping cut flows to springs in the Preserve, that might cause big problems for the federally Endangered Mohave tui chub, whose last wild population lives in a small spring downhill from the project site. (A few additional populations of the fish have been planted in other bodies of in the desert.)

Activists are gearing up to oppose the project with a unanimity not generally seen in opposition to other desert solar projects. Some green groups have been reluctant to stand in full-bore opposition to other desert solar proposals given the seriousness of the climate crisis the projects are intended to address. But the problems with the Bechtel project would seem to undo any benefit the solar energy might offer. Aside from the water and wildlife concerns, it may be that the project would be built to no actual end. No utility has agreed to buy a single megawatt of the 358 the project would generate at peak production.

Though two transmission lines cross the Soda Mountain Solar site, one -- the Eldorado-Kramer line operated by the California Independent System Operator (CaISO) -- is at capacity already, and would need expensive upgrades to carry more power. The other line, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Marketplace-Adelanto line, supplies power to municipal utilities in Southern California. None of those utilities have expressed public interest in buying Soda Mountain's power.

Given what they cast as the likely lack of compensating benefits from the project, groups ranging from NPCA to the national office of the Sierra Club have already gone on record as opposing the plant.

A public comment period on the project's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) draws to a close March 3. Many in attendance at the meeting in Shoshone said they were awaiting comments by the National Park Service on the Draft EIS, which are rumored to be blunt. With the close of comments on the Draft EIS, the Bureau of Land Management will begin drafting the project's Final EIS, which is likely to take several months.

One thing the BLM will need to address in that new document is a recent San Bernardino County ordinance that would seem to make the Soda Mountain project illegal as designed, by restricting solar development within two miles of National Parks in unincorporated sections of the county.

Some independent activists in attendance at Shoshone aren't waiting to go through the usual EIS process, and have crafted a Whitehouse.gov petition urging President Obama to make a decision up front denying Bechtel the right of way the project will need in order to go forward.

Barring that petition's success, the BLM's approach to the project in crafting the final EIS will likely ride on what the National Park Service's comments on the draft EIS say. The scoping comments mentioned above focused on impacts to bighorn as well as groundwater depletion and the site's top-notch desert tortoise habitat.

Pneumonia outbreak now called ‘worst case scenario’ for bighorn sheep

Bighorn Sheep are shown on the trail to Icebox Canyon in Red Rock Conservation Area. In what wildlife biologists are calling “a worst-case scenario,” bighorn sheep in four Southern Nevada mountain ranges have now tested positive for bacteria that causes deadly pneumonia, including one herd infected with two different strains. (Anton/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

By HENRY BREAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

In what wildlife biologists are calling “a worst-case scenario,” bighorn sheep in four Southern Nevada mountain ranges have now tested positive for bacteria that causes deadly pneumonia, including one herd infected with two different strains.

Nevada Department of Wildlife officials announced Wednesday that a bacterial pneumonia outbreak first discovered in the River Mountains between Henderson and Boulder City in August appears to have spread to sheep in the Eldorado, McCullough and Spring Mountains.

The herd in the Spring Mountains also has tested positive for a second strain of bacteria that may have spread north from an outbreak that swept through Mojave National Preserve in California.

Bighorn have no natural resistance to pneumonia and tend to die at a high rate. Those that survive become carriers, infecting and eventually killing newborn lambs in a cycle that can diminish a herd for up to a decade, if not kill it off altogether.

The widening outbreak also seriously complicates efforts to restore bighorn to its historic ranges throughout Nevada and the West, since many of the animals being relocated come from Southern Nevada.

“This is a worst case scenario,” wildlife biologist Pat Cummings said in a written statement. “Given the geography between the Spring Mountains and the outbreak area in California, we were concerned this might be possible, especially with the ability of bighorn rams to cover vast amounts of territory in their wanderings. There is no way to limit these animals’ movements.”

There also is no way to treat sick animals or vaccinate healthy ones against the illness, which does not pose a risk to humans.

“We’re almost at the mercy of Mother Nature,” said department of wildlife spokesman Doug Nielsen.

When the outbreak in California was discovered last spring, wildlife managers briefly considered — then decided against — the wholesale slaughter of bighorn sheep to stop the disease from spreading across the entire 1.6 million acre preserve and beyond.

Since then, more diseased bighorns were found in the preserve’s Marble range.

Wildlife officials don’t know for sure how many sheep have died of pneumonia or how many more will die, but population numbers appear to be down in the affected areas on both sides of the border, said Peregrine Wolff, the state wildlife veterinarian for Nevada.

The bacteria that causes pneumonia can linger in bighorn sheep herds and continue to kill off lambs “for years and years and years,” Wolff said. “Our concern is will these numbers ever recover or will they just continue to be depressed?”

Wildlife officials also worry the outbreak could jump to other herds, including one in the Muddy Mountains near Moapa Valley that ranks as the largest herd in Southern Nevada.

Wolff said “nothing really” can be done to stop it. Trying to kill sick animals or eliminate an infected herd to halt the spread of bacteria is “far from an exact science,” she said.

“We’re not going to go in and lay down every sheep. We’re not going to nuke them.”

Instead, wildlife officials are asking the public’s help to chart the course of the outbreak. Anyone who spots sick or dead bighorn sheep is asked to record it, preferably with a picture and GPS coordinates.

Reports can be made by calling the department of wildlife’s Las Vegas office at 702-486-5127 or sending an email to pcummings@ndow.org.

Wolff suspects the outbreak in Southern Nevada has been underway since 2012.

The latest discovery of infected animals came about through testing conducted by the Southern Nevada Bighorn Sheep Disease Investigation Project, a partnership involving the Department of Wildlife and two conservation and hunting organizations, the Fraternity of the Desert Bighorn and the Wild Sheep Foundation.

In November, the partnership collected samples from a total of 33 bighorn, 10 each in the Eldorado and McCullough ranges and 13 in the Spring Mountains. In all but two cases, the sheep were tested and released unharmed.

Since September, wildlife officials have caught, killed and dissected one sick lamb from the Eldorado Mountains and one sick lamb from the River Mountains, both of which showed signs of pneumonia.

Bighorn sheep once roamed nearly every mountain range in Nevada, but unregulated hunting, habitat loss and disease spread by domestic livestock reduced the population to about 1,200 animals in a handful of areas, none of them north of Ely or west of Hawthorne.

Since 1967, wildlife officials have restored Nevada’s official animal to more than 60 mountain ranges and helped boost their total population to more than 11,000 adults, more than any other state. The River Mountains herd played a key role in the recovery, supplying more than a quarter of the nearly 2,900 sheep captured and relocated over the past 45 years. “That was our jewel,” Nielsen said.

Not anymore. Officials have put a stop to the relocation of bighorns from any herd showing signs of the bacteria. Wolff said the infected herds could be off limits for years, if not forever.

Bighorn sheep numbers way down

These bighorn sheep were photographed in 2009 on Old Dad Mountain, the same area of the eastern Mojave Desert where a deadly disease has spread among at least two herds. Biologists have started an effort to monitor the health of the elusive animals.

BY JANET ZIMMERMAN
Press Enterprise

Only a fraction of the bighorn sheep typically seen in a Mojave Desert mountain range was spotted during a recent helicopter survey, a sign that a deadly pneumonia outbreak has taken a significant toll on the population, a scientist said Tuesday, Nov. 12.

Crews found no obviously sick animals in many of the other mountain ranges the sheep inhabit in the eastern Mojave. Blood test results will show whether those sheep are carrying the bacteria that causes the disease.

In the hardest-hit area, around Old Dad Mountain and Kelso Peak 15 miles southeast of Baker, the helicopter crew saw 6.4 sheep per hour. Data from the past 18 years show the previous lowest encounter rate there was 8.2 sheep per hour and the average is 14.5, said Deborah Hughson, science adviser for the Mojave National Preserve.

Two animals were accidentally killed during the four-day survey last week, Hughson said.

One ewe, after collaring, became startled and jumped a short distance off a hillside, Hughson said. Her leg broke on landing, and she had to be euthanized.

The second sheep died when a capture net was discharged from the helicopter in windy conditions. The net caught the sheep’s horn and spun her abruptly around; a veterinarian who conducted a field autopsy determined the animal died instantly. It did not have pneumonia.

During the survey, 73 bighorn were fitted with locator collars that will help experts track them — and the disease — for the next four to six years.

In addition to the herd around Old Dad Mountain, which has a population of 200 to 300, the outbreak has affected a second group in the Marble Mountains, 35 miles south.

Hughson said she was surprised that there were no sick sheep beyond a few in the Marble Mountains. Crews also surveyed the Bristol, Clipper, Soda, Providence, Granite, Hackberry and Woods ranges.

“We now are pretty clear the disease is centered in the Old Dad Peak area. There has been a substantial population decline that could be as much as half of the population,” Hughson said.
In that area, crews saw four carcasses and no lambs, she said.

The disease, which can have an incubation period of months, is easily transmitted to bighorn that come in contact with domestic goats and sheep. Authorities do not know how the Mojave herds contracted it, she said.

Healthy looking sheep can carry the bacteria, then suddenly show symptoms and die soon after, Hughson said.

Scientists should have the results of blood and fecal samples and nasal swabs taken in the field by early December, and will know then which animals are infected, Hughson said.

The results will help determine the next step in dealing with the outbreak. Experts may cull sick animals from the herd to stop the disease from spreading or manipulate water sources next summer to keep the infected sheep from interacting with other herds, Hughson said.

The federal and state governments have spent more than $100,000 on the helicopter survey, collars and database, she said. The survey of more than 80,000 acres was a joint operation of the National Park Service, Mojave National Preserve and California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Crews will capture, test and attach radio transmitters to bighorn sheep

State and federal wildlife experts launch $48,000 helicopter survey and GPS tracking effort this weekend to gauge the scope of pneumonia epidemic that has killed more than 100 bighorn sheep in the Mojave Desert.

Bighorn sheep in the Mojave Desert will be outfitted with GPS radio collars so wildlife experts will know if they fall victim to a deadly pnemonia outbreak among otherwise healthy herds in the area. This photo was shot near Olancha Peak, in the Inyo National Forest.

BY JANET ZIMMERMAN
Riverside Press-Enterprise

State and federal wildlife experts will launch a $48,000 helicopter survey and GPS tracking effort this weekend to gauge the scope of a pneumonia epidemic that has killed more than 100 bighorn sheep in the Mojave Desert.

The outbreak has decimated two herds, one around Old Dad Mountain in the Mojave National Preserve and a second in the Marble Mountains, 35 miles south. Officials have said the highly contagious infection may have come from sick domestic sheep illegally dumped off a truck en route to alfalfa fields in the Imperial Valley.

The National Park Service and California Department of Fish and Wildlife will begin their four-day investigation on Sunday, Nov. 3, said Debra Hughson, science adviser for the preserve.

“We are throwing everything we have at this to better understand it and hopefully control it,” she said.

The crew of a federally contracted helicopter will search for the scattered animals over as much as 80,430 acres, in areas where dead and sick bighorns have been found and in nearby mountain ranges.

The helicopter can fly seven hours per day, at $1,600 per hour, paid for by the National Park Service, Hughson said.

Individual animals will be captured with a net fired out of the low-flying helicopter. The bighorn is then removed from the net, blindfolded to reduce stress and hobbled with a leather restraint to prevent kicking, she said. The workers take blood samples and a nasal swab, attach the collar and release the animal.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife is providing 54 GPS collars that transmit information daily by satellite. If an animal stops moving, the collar sends out a mortality signal so that experts can quickly locate the carcass and take samples, Hughson said. The GPS collars work for four years.

After the GPS collars are gone, high-frequency radio collars will be used for any remaining animals that are located, she said. The radio collars have a longer battery life and are less expensive, but readings require a fixed-wing aircraft or people in the field with antennas, instead of a satellite.

“The idea here is to have collared animals in the surrounding mountain ranges so we can have an early warning of the spread of the pathogen,” Hughson said. “We can get a better understanding of the progression of the disease, its spread and impact on herds.”

Biologists, veterinarians and other staff will help with the field operation. If an obviously sick animal is captured, a veterinarian may decide to kill it and perform a field autopsy, Hughson said.

Experts don’t know exactly how many animals have died, mostly because they spread out as water sources become more plentiful this time of year, she said.

The first dead animals were found in mid-May at Old Dad Mountain, 15 miles southeast of Baker. The disease has killed about half the 200 to 300 sheep in the herd there and at nearby Kelso Peak.

In August, several sick bighorn sheep were found in the Marble Mountains, which are just south of Interstate 40 and east of Kelbaker Road.

Tests showed they all had the same strain of pneumonia. The disease is carried by domestic sheep and goats; bighorn have no immunity and almost always died of it. There is no vaccine or cure for pneumonia in bighorn sheep. The disease does not spread to humans.

State officials have decided to proceed with this year's bighorn hunting within the Mojave National Preserve, one of the few places in California where it is permitted, said Regina Abella, desert bighorn sheep coordinator at the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The state issues a limited number of tags by lottery, based on the number of rams in a herd; last season, three tags were issued for the Old Dad area. The season starts Dec. 1

Trucked sheep may have caused bighorn deaths

Domestic sheep trucked through the Mojave may have caused a devastating bighorn pneumonia wave

More than 100 bighorn sheep in and around the Mojave National Preserve have died from pneumonia since May. Wildlife officials say the epidemic wiped out half the herd, once considered one of the state's healthiest. (FILE PHOTO/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE)

By JANET ZIMMERMAN, STAFF WRITER
Press-Enterprise

A pneumonia epidemic that has killed more than 100 bighorn sheep in the Mojave National Preserve this summer and is decimating another herd may have come from sick animals illegally dumped off a truck en route to alfalfa fields in the Imperial Valley, federal land managers said Tuesday, Sept. 3.

Scientists are investigating two areas plagued by disease. The first, at Old Dad Mountain, is 15 miles southeast of Baker. Wildlife experts estimate that half of the 200- to 300-sheep herd has died there and at nearby Kelso Peak since mid-May.

Last month, several sick bighorn sheep were found 35 miles to the south in the Marble Mountains, which are just south of Interstate 40 and east of Kelbaker Road. Tests showed they suffered the same strain of pneumonia found in bighorn at Old Dad Mountain and Kelso Peak.

“They’re seeing a lot of sick sheep, so they’re expecting a lot of sheep to die in the next couple weeks in the Marble Mountains. It happened pretty quick at Old Dad, within a month,” said Linda Slater, spokeswoman for the 1.6 million-acre preserve.

The majestic bighorn, icons of the American West, are highly susceptible to pneumonia carried by domestic sheep and goats. Bighorn have no immunity to the disease, which is almost always fatal.

At first, wildlife experts feared the pneumonia was transmitted between the herds and would quickly spread. But a recent discovery may be a clue to the source of the outbreak and its transmission, she said.

Click to view larger map

On Aug. 13, four domestic sheep carcasses and domestic sheep pellets were found at Halloran Summit, about 15 miles northeast of Baker on Interstate 15, she said. That is 20 miles away from the center of the outbreak at Old Dad Mountain, home to what had been considered one of the state’s healthiest herds.

On Aug. 24, scientists also found pellets at Foshay Pass, 15 miles northeast of Interstate 40 and Kelbaker Road. They are waiting for test results to determine whether the droppings came from domestic sheep, Slater said.

Trucks regularly transport domestic sheep through the Mojave on their way from Montana to Imperial Valley and around the Salton Sea for grazing, Slater said.

“The scientists are speculating that perhaps a truckload had some sick sheep on it. Maybe (the driver) had to unload some sheep to get some dead animals off the truck” and that’s how pellets got on the ground, she said.

The case is still under investigation and law enforcement is not involved, she said.

Early on, biologists thought that a feral angora goat shot by a hunter last fall at Marl Spring, 12 miles east of Old Dad Mountain, may have been the source of the outbreak. Though the animal tested negative for pneumonia, it still could have been a carrier, Slater said.

Later this month, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is expected to conduct a count by helicopter. The numbers of bighorn will be compared to population figures from the last survey, in 2008.

In October, state and federal officials plan to capture healthy animals in the surrounding mountains and outfit them with GPS collars so they will know immediately if they go down. At the same time, they will be able to collect blood samples and nasal swabs to see if the infection has spread.

There is no vaccine or cure for pneumonia in bighorn sheep. The disease does not spread to humans.

Some of the dead animals were taken for testing to the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory in San Bernardino, which is operated by the UC Davis veterinary school. Some carcasses were too decomposed for testing and were left in the field, state officials said.

Before the outbreak, there were an estimated 425 to 750 bighorn in the five groups in the Mojave: Old Dad Mountain, Clark Mountain, Piute Mountain, Woods-Hackberry Mountains and Providence-Granite Mountains.

State officials have yet to decide whether to proceed with this year’s bighorn hunting within the preserve, which starts Dec. 1. The Mojave is one of the few places in California where bighorn sheep hunting is permitted.

In October, the Fish and Game Commission will consider what to do about the upcoming hunting season. The state issues tags by lottery, based on the number of rams in a herd; three were issued this year for the Old Dad Mountain and Kelso Peak area.

Bighorn sheep testing shows sick animals without disease

Two bighorn sheep ewes and their lambs are photographed during a survey conducted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Both state and national wildlife agencies were investigating a disease outbreak within the Mojave National Preserve.

BROOKE SELF, STAFF WRITER
Desert Dispatch

BAKER • Preliminary survey results by wildlife agencies in the Mojave National Preserve show that a few sick desert bighorn sheep have tested negative for pneumonia, according to an official of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

More than 20 sheep in a herd of about 200 bighorns have died. One of those animals was confirmed by laboratory tests to have pneumonia, coordinator Regina Abella said on Friday.

Pneumonia can pass to bighorn from domestic sheep and goats. It is believed an angora goat found 12 miles east of Old Dad Mountain near Baker may have been the culprit for the outbreak, according to a news release from the National Park Service.

Desert bighorn have no natural defenses to diseases carried by domestic animals and the mortality rate for infected animals is 50 to 90 percent.

In California, all bighorn sheep are fully protected under the Department of Fish and Wildlife code which is a classification made to animals that are rare or face possible extinction, according to Abella. However, the desert area has historically held a very healthy and robust population of the breed, she said. In fact the desert bighorn were recently used to help populate other herds in nearby states, she said.

One concern of the wildlife agencies is that the summer marks the beginning of rut, or mating season, which could potentially influence long-distance movement by the older male bighorns. Jeff Villepique of the National Park Service said that officials were nervous about the desert herd potentially carrying the disease to nearby Nevada bighorns.

Two weeks ago officials also did a three-day helicopter survey of Old Dad Mountain and other nearby herds, according to the Mojave National Preserve website. Scientists hoped to asses the current distribution and status of the disease. After the survey on July 19, scientists were still compiling and interpreting the data but noted significantly fewer desert bighorn were observed on Old Dad Mountain compared with previous surveys, according to the report.

Nearby herds appeared to be healthy and in good condition.

Diseased bighorn sheep might have to be killed in Mojave National Preserve

Desert bighorn sheep gather at night on June 6 at a guzzler set up to provide water for the herd. A virus that is killing sheep in the largest herd at the Mojave National Preserve is described as "a grim situation" by spokeswoman Linda Slater.

By HENRY BREAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Wildlife officials in California might resort to killing desert bighorn sheep in an effort to contain an outbreak of a deadly disease now spreading through the largest herd in Mojave National Preserve, 100 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

At least 20 dead sheep have been found in the past month on Old Dad Mountain, about 15 miles southeast of Baker, Calif. Tests have confirmed that at least some of the animals died from a strain of pneumonia generally transmitted by domestic sheep and goats and usually fatal to bighorn.

“It’s really kind of a grim situation to be perfectly honest with you,” said Linda Slater, spokeswoman for the 1.6 million-acre preserve.

Officials from the National Park Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife are now considering whether to hunt down sheep showing signs of sickness. But even that might not be enough to halt the spread.

“To really get rid of the disease, you have to kill every animal, but that’s not practical or likely to happen,” Slater said. “There are no good management options.”

Wildlife officials in Nevada are watching the situation anxiously, hoping the sick animals can be contained somehow before they come into contact with sheep in the Silver State.

The diseased herd is “only a 45-mile trip as the crow flies” from mountains that harbor desert bighorn at the southern edge of Clark County, said Doug Nielsen, spokesman for the Nevada Department of Wildlife.

“We do have some right down there close to the state line. So it’s a concern, and it’s something that needs to be monitored.”

Slater said the afflicted animals are part of what she called “the biggest and healthiest herd” in Southern California. Transplants from the group have been used in the past to bolster struggling herds elsewhere in California, she said.

Bighorn have no natural resistance to pneumonia and tend to die at a high rate. Those that survive become carriers, infecting newborn lambs in a cycle that can ravage the herd for up to a decade.

Biologists may never know for certain how the isolated herd of 200 to 300 sheep was exposed to the disease, but they have their suspicions.

Slater said a domestic goat turned up in the area about six months ago — a rare and unexplained find — but the animal showed no signs of pneumonia. However, tests for the disease are not always reliable, she said.

Biologists and veterinarians “seem really pessimistic that anything can be done” to keep the entire herd from being exposed, Slater said. The worry now is that the disease will spread to one of four other herds in the preserve, possibly by a ram sent wandering when rutting season gets underway in the coming weeks.

Volunteers from the Sierra Club and the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep assisted with the initial search for sick and dead animals. A lack of resources and the remote, rugged location of the herd have hampered efforts so far to address the outbreak, Slater said.

Back in Nevada, wildlife officials are hoping that hot, dry weather this summer will keep the affected herd close to the water sources in its home range and away from other herds. Beyond that, Nielsen said, there isn’t much that can be done from the Nevada side of the state line but to wait and watch what happens.

Bighorn sheep once roamed nearly every mountain range in Nevada, but their numbers began to decline in the mid-1800s, as settlers and prospectors swept into the region, mostly in the north.

By 1960, disease, unregulated hunting and habitat loss had reduced Nevada’s bighorn population to about 1,200 animals in a handful of ranges, none of them north of Ely or west of Hawthorne.

Wildlife officials launched the Bighorn Sheep Release Program in 1967 to return the official state animal to its former glory.

Today, Nevada is home to more bighorn sheep than any other state — better than 10,000 adult animals in at least 60 different mountain ranges.

But disease always looms as a threat to those gains.

In 2010, pneumonia nearly wiped out a herd of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in the Ruby Mountains near Elko.

The most recent outbreak in Southern Nevada struck in 2002 in the Specter Range, along U.S. Highway 95 about 75 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

After several years of what Nielsen called “very low lamb survival,” the herd’s numbers finally began to rebound in 2009.

Wildlife biologists investigate bighorn sheep deaths

Bighorn sheep near a wildlife guzzler in the Old Dad Mountain range in the Mojave National Preserve. (FILE PHOTO)

by Janet Zimmerman
Press-Enterprise

Wildlife officials are investigating the recent deaths of four bighorn sheep in the desert near Baker to see if the animals died of pneumonia.

The animals were found late last month by a National Park Service employee who was inspecting man-made watering holes, known as guzzlers, on Old Dad Mountain, 15 miles southeast of Baker, according to a news release issued today, June 6.

The employee observed other animals that appeared to be weak and unsteady, with labored breathing. Laboratory analysis of blood and tissue samples taken from one of the animals indicated that it had pneumonia, which is usually fatal to the species.

The bighorn can contract the disease from domestic sheep and goats. Biologists from the Park Service and state Department of Fish and Wildlife are conducting a field survey to determine the scope of the outbreak, the news release said.

Scientists believe there are 200 to 300 desert bighorn around Old Dad Mountain. It is one of the largest native populations in the Mojave Desert, according to Stephanie Dubois, superintendent of the Mojave National Preserve.

Drones to spy on Southern Nevada wildlife, not people

A U.S. Geological Survey THawk drone lifts off on April 3 during an aerial survey of abandoned dump sites in the Mojave National Preserve in California, about 80 miles south of Las Vegas. (U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY)

By HENRY BREAN
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

A few months from now, government agents with drones will descend on Southern Nevada to spy on the locals.

Luckily, mule deer and bighorn sheep don’t carry ACLU cards.

The U.S. Geological Survey started using unmanned aircraft for wildlife and land management work about two years ago. Its first Nevada mission, planned for August or September, involves counting sheep and deer within the Desert National Wildlife Refuge north of Las Vegas.

What used to require a helicopter and thousands of dollars worth of fuel can now be done with some fresh batteries and what looks like an elaborate toy plane no bigger than a turkey vulture.

Mike Hutt, who heads up the Geological Survey’s National Unmanned Aircraft Systems Project Office in Denver, says there has been a “groundswell” of Department of Interior drone use in recent years, as cash-strapped field offices look for ways to do more work with less money.

In coming months, the USGS plans to use unmanned aircraft to track eagles and trumpeter swans in Idaho and Washington state, spot invasive plants at Utah’s Zion National Park and search the Oregon coast for debris from the 2011 tsunami that struck Japan.

Hutt says that his agency got its first military-surplus drone in 2009 and flew its first real mission in 2011. His office now has about a dozen missions under its belt, with at least nine more planned later this year.

‘SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY’

Widening domestic use of unmanned aircraft comes as the American Civil Liberties Union and others call for clear policies and restrictions designed to prevent the creation of a “surveillance society.”

Hutt is sensitive to privacy concerns and says virtually all his office’s work takes place on public land: “When we fly we let people in the local area know and invite them out. We try to be as trans­parent as possible.”

With rare exception, the drones operate at no more than 400 feet altitude and at least five miles from the nearest home. “We don’t fly over populated areas,” Hutt says.

In fact, they rarely fly over private property. When they do, they get written permission from the land owner in advance. They also have to get Federal Aviation Administration clearance.

The Geological Survey now has drone systems stationed in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho and Montana, and uses two types of aircraft: a battery-powered, fixed-wing airplane called the Raven and a gas-burning helicopter called the THawk.

Neither resembles an advanced, unmanned warplane such as the Predator or the Reaper. These look more like something you might buy in a hobby shop.

The Raven weighs less than five pounds and measures less than five feet from wing tip to wing tip. It is easily lifted with one hand and launched into the air the way you might toss a paper airplane.

It flies quietly, but landings are rarely pretty. The plane is designed to break apart on impact to avoid permanent damage, so there is often some assembly required before the next flight.

At 18 pounds, the THawk is heavier and less graceful in the air, but it provides more stable images because it can hover. The trade-off comes in the form of noise and general obnoxiousness.

“It sounds like a chain saw flying overhead,” Hutt says. “It’s been described as a flying trash can.”

Drone pilots also seem to prefer one vehicle over the other.

“The Raven is pretty fun,” says Jeff Sloan, a cartographer by trade who now gets to steer unmanned airplanes with a hand-held controller any young hobbyist would probably recognize. “I imagine teenagers are better at flying them than us older guys.”

The THawk is steered with a laptop computer.

Both drone systems are small and light enough for easy transport. Depending on how far they have to go for a mission, operators either transport the aircraft to the site by ground or ship them by overnight mail.

The Raven tends to be better for wildlife work because it is quieter, though drone operators have been surprised by the reaction — or lack of one — they have gotten so far from some of their THawk surveillance subjects.

“We flew 75 feet over sandhill cranes, and they didn’t seem to pay any attention to us as they roosted at night,” Hutt recalls. “I think critters in the field grow to accept certain things as a threat, and they don’t see us as a threat yet.”

Last month, Sloan and company traveled to Mojave National Preserve in California, about 80 miles south of Las Vegas, where they scanned several square miles from the air in search of trash piles and illegal dump sites for eventual cleanup.

OTHER USES FOR IMAGES

After looking at the high-resolution pictures from the drone, the staff at the desert park dreamed up other uses for the images, including a Joshua tree inventory and a study of invasive weed concentrations.

Sloan says that happens a lot. Once people see what the machines are capable of, they want more. “ ‘Can you do this while you’re up there?’ That’s pretty typical,” he says. “Really the applications are limitless.”

Hutt says that drones could prove useful for finding missing hikers, spotting wildfires, monitoring crops, refining maps, surveying archeological sites and inspecting canals, power lines, pipelines, fences and dams.

Already, biologists use them to track and count protected species, including some that seem too small and well-camouflaged to be spotted from the air.

Sloan recently used drones outfitted with thermal and high-definition cameras to identify and count sage grouse in Colorado. The birds are about the size of an average chicken, but the crew was able to spot them from 150 feet above.

“I didn’t think it would work,” Hutt says.

Once the FAA approves a mission, the drone team can deploy in just a few days.

The work is done on the cheap by using off-the-shelf equipment such as the high-definition cameras now favored by skydivers, snowboarders and dirtbike riders who like to film their death-defying stunts.

The drones have “close to zero maintenance and operational costs,” so a week-long mission like the one planned in Nevada can be done for as little as $3,000 in labor expenses.

The standard way of counting bighorn sheep and mule deer — namely by putting people in a helicopter — typically costs $20,000 to $40,000, Hutt says.

FOLLOW-UP COUNT

After an initial count in August or September, the drone crew will likely return to the desert north of Las Vegas next spring for a follow-up count of newborn lambs and fawns.

Coincidentally, the search area is not far from Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, a hub for the military’s considerably less benign use of unmanned aircraft.

Hutt and Sloan say they have no plans to arm their drones and try to use them, for example, to tranquilize large game. But you could tell the suggestion got their wheels turning.

Ultimately Hutt doesn’t worry too much about where all this drone use might lead.

“I think people are too busy to fly a UAV over my house,” he says. “They’d be pretty bored watching me out there mowing the lawn anyway.”

Like them or not, drones are sure to become more and more prevalent as the technology improves, Hutt says. “I don’t even think that we know all the possible applications.”

Adds Sloan, the map maker turned remote pilot: “I think we’re just scratching the surface. Every time we go out, we have a hundred other ideas.”

BLM Rebuffs Conservation Groups, Approves California Solar Project

Desert tortoise sporting a tracking device and a desert tortoise monitor/biologist.

Alyssa Carducci
Heartland Institute

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management released a final Environmental Impact Statement approving the development of 1,044 acres of desert tortoise habitat adjacent to Joshua Tree National Park in southern California for the construction of a large-scale solar power project.

BLM’s decision rebuffs conservation groups such as the Western Lands Project and the Wildlands Conservancy that seek to preserve desert tortoise habitat.

Dislodging Threatened Tortoises

The Desert Harvest solar power project, proposed by EDF Renewable Energy in San Diego, will produce as much power as a small conventional power plant during daylight hours when the sun is not obscured by clouds.

Conservationists point out the project will be prominently visible from many mountain ranges in Joshua Tree National Park. The power project will also dislodge and potentially cause the death of bighorn sheep and desert tortoises, which are listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

“We are opposed to the Obama administration's policy to site large, damaging, remote solar plants on public lands, where they destroy habitat and ecosystem function and require large transmission lines [and] corridors to get the power to urban centers,” Janine Blaeloch, director of Western Lands Project, said.

Western Lands Project, along with Basin and Range Watch and Solar Done Right, filed a protest against the project with BLM.

Developing Pristine Lands

Conservation groups generally support renewable power but say the industry should be able to produce power without destroying pristine lands harboring valuable plant and animal species.

“We don’t oppose solar energy, and we are not climate change skeptics,” said Kevin Emmerich, spokesperson for Basin and Range Watch. “We would just like to see solar energy built in a way that does not replace undeveloped land, wildlife habitat, and ancient Native American sites with solar panels.”

Emmerich said the Desert Harvest project is especially troublesome because it would be located between two important wildlife conservation areas and Joshua Tree National Park. The site is known for important microphyll woodlands, which provide habitat for several bird species, said Emmerich.

Other Lands Available

The Desert Harvest project will be near another large-scale solar project now under construction, the Desert Sunlight Project. Emmerich said construction of the Desert Sunlight Project is already creating negative environmental impacts for the local region, such as degraded air quality due to dust storms.
Emmerich said the Desert Harvest project could be moved to “degraded lands,” land already developed, damaged, or contaminated.

“The Environmental Protection Agency has identified 15 million acres of brownfields or degraded lands that would be suitable for renewable energy,” said Emmerich.

Blaeloch agreed with Emmerich on the siting of solar power projects.

“We are pushing for siting solar generating facilities and rooftop arrays in the built environment, on damaged land, and on the millions of acres of brownfields, degraded lands, landfills, etc., the EPA has identified as suitable for that purpose,” said Blaeloch.

Silence of the Lambs

Feds Authorize Killing of Bighorn Sheep in Path of Wind Project

Endangered Bighorn on boundary of
Pattern's Ocotillo Express wind facility

By Miriam Raftery
East County Magazine

Ocotillo -- In a precedent that has horrified wildlife experts, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has authorized the “take” (meaning harassment, displacement or even death) of 10 endangered Peninsular Bighorn Sheep – five ewes and five lambs.

The decision comes after federal wildlife officials were provided photographic evidence that the endangered animals were seen in recent weeks on the site of the just-approved Ocotillo Express wind energy facility—a presence federal officials and the project developer have long denied.

Mark Jorgensen is the retired Superintendent of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which shares a five mile border with the Ocotillo Express wind project now under construction on adjacent public property owned by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). He is horrified at the decision to allow the killing of the sheep on land that until recently was designated as critical bighorn habitat.

Jorgensen calls the decision “astounding” in a comment submitted on the Biological Opinion, adding that the USF&W “is charged with protecting this endangered population—and it is not showing any leadership in safeguarding the [Endangered Species Act] ESA.”

According to the USF&WS website, “The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.”

There are only about 950 Peninsular Bighorn Sheep left in the U.S. as of 2010. Their numbers had steadily declined prior to being declared an endangered species in 1998, according to the Bighorn Institute.

The “take” authorization is found in a Biological Opinion issued by the Carlsbad, California office of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USF&WS) to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on April 25, 2012. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a final Record of Decision last week authorizing the Ocotillo wind facility. His decision relied on the USF&WS document, among others.

Wind energy corporations in other parts of the country have been issued take permits for endangered eagles, our national symbol--all part of new policies implemented amid the rush to fast-track so-called "green" energy projects.

Until recently, over 800,000 acres in the area were designated as critical habit for the Peninsular Desert Bighorn Sheep. But that number was recently sliced to less than half—370,000 acres—by the USF&WS, a convenient decision for Pattern Energy, developer of the 12,500 acre Ocotillo Express wind project as well as other local developers whose proposed projects were similar removed from bighorn habitat designation.

Jorgensen accuses the USF&WS of bowing to political pressures and ignoring evidence. “They claim this was a result of `new science’ and a legal challenge, but they’ve never produced the science to substantiate their reduction,” he wrote in the the Biological Opinion submitted on May 2, 2012.

At times, the habitat removal borders on sheer incredulity. The only officially designated bighorn habitat on the 12,500 Ocotillo wind site is an “island”, or median area between the north and southbound lanes of the Interstate 8 freeway.

The Ocotillo wind project shares a five-mile boundary with Anza Borrego Desert State Park. Jorgensen and others have voiced concerns that the wind project cuts off a key corridor used by the sheep to migrate to and from the park seasonally.

Jorgensen has previously turned whistleblower, telilng ECM that the California Governor's office issued a gag order two days before the deadline for comments on the wind project's Environmental Impact Statement -- preventing state park employees from turrning in a comment that had been worked on for months. The muzzled comments included concerns over the project's impacts on endangered Bighorn sheep, according to Jorgensen.

Governor Jerry Brown's office has denied that a gag order was issued. But the Borrego Sun subsequently published a news article revealing that multiple individuals with close ties to Anza Borrego Desert State Park confirmed that state park employees were gagged. The nonprofit Anza Borrego Desert State Foundation, however, has issued scathing criticism of the project's potential impacts on wildlife including Bighorn sheep and denounced both state and federal officials for failing in their duties to protect endangered wildlife and habitat.

Above the project site to the west, construction of the high-voltage Sunrise Powerlink line in McCain Valley has disrupted additional bighorn habitat—and now a second wind facility, Tule Wind, has been approved by the BLM for construction in McCain Valley. With trucks and helicopters throughout the region, California Highway Patrol has recently had to use bullhorns to scare displaced bighorn off the freeway itself.

Pattern did remove some turbines slated to go into rocky areas, but has insisted that no bighorn sheep have been seen on the flat, sandy areas.

Two photographers sent ECM photographs of bighorn in the area as recently as April. Those photos showed a herd of the endangered animals on the project boundary—some with radio tracking collars and ear tags visible. One shot shows sheep standing in flat sand, not rocks.

ECM sent those photos to federal wildlife officials to document presence of the sheep on the project site. But instead of taking action to protect the endangered animals, the USF&WS authorized their destruction—and Secretary Salazar signed their death warrant.

Jorgensen had proposed that the entire project be rejected. Failing that, he sought removal of eight turbines within three-quarters of a mile of a documented lambing area. He also urged federal officials to consider the “overwhelming cumulative impacts being generated in the area” including two wind projects, two high-voltage powerlines, I-8, Border Patrol’s increased activity, off-road-vehicle activity and more.

Astoundingly, the USF&WS document claims that the project does not constitute a significant loss in habitat.

Pattern has agreed to a monitoring and mitigation plan, including restoration of historic bighorn habitat at Carrizo Creek. However that does not account for the disruption in habitat conductivity that the massive project will cause -- a concern raised by numerous wildlife experts in the area.

The project developer misleadingly has stated that only a small fraction of the 12,500 acres will be impacted—but fails to count the spaces between turbines as impacted areas even though they will be beneath blades each with a sweep area the size of a football field, each generating infrasound capable of causing health impacts, blade flicker, and noise described by some as similar to a helicopter hovering constantly. Wind facilities can also generate stray voltage capable of causing injury or even death; entire herds of cattle have been known to die from ground current.

Ominously, the Biological Opinion further makes reference to “incidental take”, leaving the door open to authorize even more bighorn deaths.

“This is not acceptable for USF&WS to permit,” Jorgensen says of the five ewes and five lambs authorized for potential destruction. His comment concludes emphatically that the USF&WS has “NO EXCUSE for this action!”

A massive excavation area at the site will be for a 785,000 "pond", a worker told an ECM photographer Jim Pelley. Pelley fears the pond may contain brackish water that could harm bighorn sheep or other wildlife.

Courtney Coyle, attorney for the Viejas tribe, told ECM she did not see a reference to where the pond would be locatedin the project EIS. "This is part of the changing project descriptions issue," she said.

Significantly, the final project approval document signed by Salazar state that the project will power a mere 25,000 homes--a four-fifths drop from the 130,000 homes claimed by Pattern in its testimony to Imperial Valley Supervisors, County Planners, and in the EIS. Where did the missing 105,000 homes go? Were approvals granted under false pretexts?

Moreover, the wind speeds Pattern know acknowledges at the project site are lower than the Department of Energy's recommended minimum standard for a viable wind energy project.

The site also poses risks to human health, from deadly Valley Fever spores being kicked up by construction dust to infrasound hazards to residents of Ocotillo, who will be surrounded on three sides by whirling turbines 450 tall or more.

If the project is going to generate only a fifth of the power promised by proponents, and the hidden costs are staggering and irreversible, why hasn't the federal government halted the project and weighed whether federal subsidies should be withdrawn?

Robert Scheid is spokesman for the Viejas Band of the Kumeyaay Nation, one of several Indian tribes fighting to halt the project due to threats to Native American remains, artifacts, ancient geoglyphs and sacred sites. Scheid has called the Ocotillo project a "land grab of public lands by private corporations."

The Quechan tribe on Friday asked a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order to halt the devastation, after forensic dogs hired by tribes found six additional apparent cremation sites.

Meanwhile, bulldozers have begun the task of destroying the fragile desert terrain, wiping out habitat even as multiple lawsuits make their way into the courts seeking to protect Native American cultural sites as well as wildlife habitat.

Absent a restraining order soon, however, both the endangered Bighorn and countlesss Native American sacred sites may soon be gone with the wind.