In response to a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity, Tucson Herpetological Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and others, a federal district court in Arizona ruled late Tuesday that the flat-tailed horned lizard once again is a proposed threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

The district court’s reinstatement of the proposed listing rule follows a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in May 2009 that overturned an Interior Department decision to deny protection to the species.

Since the vanishing lizard was first proposed for listing in 1993, the proposal had been withdrawn three times, with conservation groups successfully challenging each withdrawal in court. Meanwhile, the species’ habitat has fallen prey to additional destruction.

There are a few versions of this news floating around that inadvertently exaggerate the good news aspect, so here’s a little bit of DPC clarification. The lizard (known formally to herpetologists as Phrynosoma mcallii) hasn’t won legal status as a Threatened species. That may yet come. What it has gained is its old seat in the waiting room.

In order for a species to be listed as Endangered or Threatened, it must first be proposed for listing. A species can be proposed for listing due to the relevant federal agencies taking the initiative through their candidate assessment programs, or as a result of petition from concerned citizens and organizations. Either way, field staff for the agency involved — National Marine Fisheries Service staff for species in their bailiwick, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service for everything else — review the available science and write a draft proposal. This gets forwarded to DC, where national staff make changes and amendments and then publish the final proposal in the Federal Register.

That’s the status the horned lizard has regained: formally proposed. The species must still await a public comment period and final agency decision. It does not yet enjoy the protection Threatened status would afford it. But it is a step closer.

It’s sobering to note that while most of us have gotten used to the Bush administration stonewalling on endangered species protection, the Interior Department has been tossing back the proposal to list the flat-tailed horned lizard ever since 1993, the first year of the Clinton administration. Ironically, the reason for the refusal to act is apparently that the lizard is just too hard to find, and getting harder with the passage of time. A sensible person might conclude that the species is therefore getting closer to the brink of extinction’s abyss. Not so, says the Interior Department: because we can’t find the things, we therefore have no information on their numbers and thus insufficient data to determine whether they’re rare.

You can’t make up stuff like this.

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An Orange County businessman wants to build a motorsports racetrack on 320 acres 1.5 miles from the California State Poppy Reserve in the Antelope Valley.  The racetrack would potentially host high performance race vehicles 365 days a year.  A Los Angeles County Planning Commission staff report presented at a hearing September 2 recommended approval of the project.

There will be another hearing at 9:00 am, December 2.  Please attend this hearing if at all possible. The majority of speakers at the September hearing were in favor of the racetrack.  If you cannot make the hearing, please write to the Planning Commission and tell them that you think wildflower preserves and motorsports parks don’t make good neighbors.

Address letters to:
Mr. Jodie Sackett
County of Los Angeles Department of Regional Planning
Room 1382
320 West Temple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
or email jsackett@planning.lacounty.gov
(if you are a Los Angeles County resident, please cc your supervisor; see http://bos.co.la.ca.us/ for supervisors’ names and addresses)

Here are some of the negative impacts that could be included in a letter:

1.  Sound will be clearly heard on Reserve hiking trails and in a wide area of Antelope Acres.

Hiking through field of wildflowers and listening to the drone of high performance racing engines are clearly incompatible experiences!

81% of the respondents to a survey of Poppy Reserve visitors indicated that their visits to the Reserve would be significantly decreased if a racetrack were built nearby.  44% indicated that they would never come again!

Fewer visitors will mean decreased revenue, revenue that is vital both for protection of the fragile wildflower fields and continuation of public recreational use.

These funds are particularly crucial during this time of fiscal crisis in the State of California.

2.  Zone change to industrial/ commercial will open the door to more damaging developments: this is completely incompatible with the rural nature of the area and an existing state park dedicated to hiking and nature.

3.  Existing property owners, who bought and built under existing zoning of agricultural and residential, will suffer from extreme noise and likely experience devaluation of their properties. Who wants to live near a racetrack?

4. Racetrack property includes important  Antelope Valley Prehistoric Sites. These sites indicate that Fairmont Butte was a center for both trade and tool making in the era before European contact. Development of the racetrack will greatly endanger these sites.

5. Race track will be an attractive nuisance, drawing additional illegal off-road activity to the area — causing severe damage to archeological sites and habitat east of Fairmont Butte, and increasing noise impacts to Reserve and local residents.

6.  Dust, air and light pollution will increase. Light pollution will negate use of the reserve for star parties for local astronomy groups and will likely have a significant detrimental impact on the primarily nocturnal desert ecosystem.  Numerous studies have shown that exposure to artificial lights can disrupt wildlife.

7. Wildlife corridors necessary to maintain ecological balance will be blocked.

8. The racetrack will destroy prime areas for wildflowers and other disappearing native plants.  Area proposed for this development includes part of the Fairmont-Antelope Buttes Significant Ecological Area (SEA No. 57)  which contains a sensitive area for birds of prey.

Visit the Save The Poppy Reserve website for more information.

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“The current critical habitat designation for the Peninsular bighorn sheep is scientifically flawed,” said Ileene Anderson, biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “From 2001 to 2009, solid habitat protection was in place, and the sheep numbers were increasing. But to recover and thrive the sheep need that solid protection to continue.”

The new designation has abandoned protections for essential migration corridors, steep slopes, alluvial terraces, and canyon bottoms. Scientific studies document these as critical to the bighorn’s survival and recovery. Protections were vastly reduced in the San Jacinto Mountains and around the Coachella Valley, where much of the alluvial fan and canyon bottom land were removed despite the agency’s admission that these areas are critical to the survival of endangered Peninsular bighorn.

“This habitat reduction was a huge blow to Peninsular bighorn recovery,” said Joan Taylor, conservation chair for the local Sierra Club group in the Coachella Valley. The group has long been embroiled in the controversy surrounding hillside development in the mountains and canyons around Palm Springs. “Nothing is different about bighorn biology since the original 2001 critical habitat determination, but the politics have changed. The Fish and Wildlife Service has caved to special-development interests, and the bighorn have gotten the shaft in the process.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service recovery plan for Peninsular bighorn sheep, approved in 2000, says that access to the rich forage in canyon areas provides bighorn ewes with nutrients needed for nursing their lambs at a crucial time in the lamb’s development. Canyon areas also are important for bighorn movement. Including these areas in the critical habitat designation and eliminating habitat fragmentation is scientifically documented and required for endangered bighorn survival and recovery.

“The bighorn is an icon of the Peninsular ranges. People from all over the world travel to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park to spot the sheep browsing on cliffs and mountaintops above water sources,” said Terry Weiner, conservation coordinator for the Desert Protective Council. “By removing protection of desert washes and alluvial fans of the bighorn’s summer ranges, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has chosen more desert golf course development and profit for a few over recovery of our fragile, beloved bighorn and protection of the greater public good of preservation of our desert natural heritage.”

“Because politics trumped science, we cannot let such an egregious reduction of critical habitat go unchallenged,” said Drew Feldmann, conservation chairman of the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society.

Peninsular bighorn are known for both the characteristic large, spiral horns of the males and the species’ ability to survive in the dry, rugged mountains dividing the desert and coastal regions of California. The Peninsular Ranges population of desert bighorn inhabits the rugged desert mountains running from the San Gorgonio Pass south into Baja California. Once the most numerous of desert bighorn, the U.S. population of Peninsular bighorn plummeted from 1,171 sheep in 1974 to a mere 276 by 1996. The species gained state status as rare and threatened in 1971, but was not listed by the federal government as an endangered population until 1998 in response to a petition from the Sierra Club.

In 2001, in response to efforts by the Center for Biological Diversity and Desert Survivors, the Fish and Wildlife Service designated more than 840,000 acres of mountainous and canyon habitat as critical habitat. In the decade since being listed as an endangered species, the population has increased to 800, which still represents only a fraction of the historic population. Peninsular bighorn are restricted to lower slopes due to the dense chaparral that grows at higher elevations in these mountains, which forces the species to live in the narrowing band between the ever-expanding near urban areas in the Coachella Valley.

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RULING PROTECTS CALIFORNIA DESERT LANDS
Judgment Overturns U.S. Bureau of Land Management Designation of More Than 5,000 Miles of Off-Highway Vehicle Routes in the California Desert

September 29, 2009: Eleven environmental organizations scored a huge victory in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages 25 million acres of public land in southern California known as the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA). The Area is home to numerous critical environmental, recreational and cultural resources, including many protected animal and plant species. The ruling, by the Hon. Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California impacts off-highway vehicle (OHV) routes established within the last 30 years, as well as the designation of future routes.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, including Community ORV Watch, The Alliance for Responsible Recreation, California Wilderness Coalition, The Wilderness Society, Friends of Juniper Flats, Western San Bernardino Landowners Association, California Native Plant Society, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Desert Survivors argued that BLM’s designation of OHV routes in the Western Mojave (WEMO) region of CDCA violates the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). These Acts assure that environmental considerations, such as impacts to wildlife, soils, watersheds, vegetation and cultural resources, must be carefully analyzed and minimized prior to BLM’s designation of OHV routes. The groups were represented by attorneys Robert Wiygul, Skye Stanfield and the Center for Biological Diversity.

In its wide-reaching ruling, the Court held that BLM did not adhere to its own regulations in analyzing and minimizing environmental impacts during its designation of 5,098 miles of OHV routes in the Western Mojave in 2006. The Court also held that OHV route designations developed since 1980 are in violation of the CDCA Plan, which limits route designations to those in existence in 1980. The BLM has not adhered to that restriction, allowing development of hundreds of illegal OHV routes during the last three decades.

“We are thrilled that the court agreed with us that the designation of the WEMO routes was based on faulty science and, in fact, threatened fragile soils, desert vegetation, sensitive habitat and hundreds of thousands of acres of the Western Mojave Desert. We conducted ground-truthing surveys for the court that revealed that the routes actually encouraged trespass into private property and protected public lands, ” said Phil Klasky of Community ORV Watch.

The court held that the BLM’s environmental review failed to consider an adequate range of alternatives and was insufficient in its consideration of impacts to soil, cultural resources, certain plant and riparian resources, sensitive animal species, and air quality. This ruling means that the BLM must reconsider the destructive environmental impacts of OHVs on public lands in the Western Mojave region.

[For more, read Louis Sahagun's article in the Los Angeles Times.]

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The piece is remarkably nuanced for a quick take, especially given the concerted push by mainstream environmental groups toward industrial solar in our irreplaceable desert wildlands. Terry’s arguments are used to excellent and persuasive effect.

You can listen to the piece below. The text version of the piece, cut and pasted from NPR’s web site, follows the audio.

Solar Plan Ignites Some Environmental Concerns
by JEFF BRADY

Of course, after the government evaluates the environmental effects of the solar facilities, the number of acres dedicated to them could grow substantially. And that’s what really worries local environmental groups concerned about losing special places for recreation and habitat for endangered species.

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Controversial plan for solar thermal power facility in Mojave Desert dropped
BrightSource Energy Inc. today said it has scrapped a controversial plan to build a major solar thermal power facility in eastern Mojave Desert wilderness that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) wants to transform into a national monument.

The announcement ended a long-running dispute between backers of renewable energy and environmentalists strongly opposed to the idea of creating an industrial zone within 600,000 acres of former railroad lands that had been donated to the Department of Interior for conservation.

The acrimony even triggered a nasty public squabble between Robert Kennedy Jr., a senior advisor at VantagePoint Venture Partners, which raised $160 million for BrightSource, and David Myers, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy, which raised $40 million to buy the railroad lands and protect them from development.

Of particular concern was BrightSource’s application to develop a solar power plant on a portion of the donated lands known as Broadwell Dry Lake, which lies within Sleeping Beauty Valley. The scenic, near pristine region is home to Big Horn Mountain Sheep and a variety of plants and reptiles found nowhere else.

Kudos to BrightSource for doing the right thing on Broadwell Dry Lake. Might we suggest that the world-class tortoise habitat they plan to bulldoze and pave in the Ivanpah Valley deserves every bit as much respect?

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The BLM is partnering with local organizations including the Mojave Desert Land Trust, the Morongo Basin Conservation Association, the 29 Palms Historical Society, Community ORV Watch and ORV groups and vendors that promote responsible recreation including Hutchins Motor Sports of Yucca Valley.

Everyone is welcome to participate in the clean-up and each volunteer will receive a free T-shirt, a breakfast of coffee, tea and pastries, BBQ lunch and live music at The Palms Bar and Restaurant at 83131 Amboy Road in Wonder Valley located about 10 miles east of 29 Palms.

The Poste Homestead Natural and Historical Area is located off of Chadwick Road between Amboy Road and Highway 62 in Wonder Valley.  Over 100 volunteers will help remove trash, protect 100 year-old adobe ruins, erect signs and place barriers to protect sensitive habitat and historical resources from illegal off-road vehicle activity.  Local groups have been working to protect this historical and natural resource that is home to sensitive wildlife species and magnificent displays of wildflowers in the spring.

The program begins at 7:30am with pastries, coffee and tea at the parking lot of the Palms Bar and Restaurant.  Volunteers will be shuttled from the parking lot to the Poste Homestead site, about 4 miles to the east.  After the clean-up, a free BBQ lunch will be provided back at the Palms Cafe.  Organizations are invited to table at the event and everyone will be treated to a free live music concert as part of the Wonder Valley Music Festival.

Sponsoring organizations include:  29 Palms Historical Society, Community ORV Watch, Morongo Basin Conservation Association, Mojave Desert Land Trust.

For more information contact: Rose Beardshear, BLM Volunteer coordinator or Phil Klasky with Community ORV Watch pklasky@igc.org.

Sign from the Poste Homestead

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Meet DPC Board, staff, and your fellow members at the beautiful Whitewater Canyon Preserve, 2,851 acres surrounded by the BLM’s San Gorgonio Wilderness, a crucial transition-zone wildlife corridor between the San Jacinto and San Bernardino mountains.

[Photo: Bighorn Sheep at the Whitewater Canyon Preserve, photo courtesy the Wildlands Conservancy.]

On the agenda:

• Cameron Barrows of UC Riverside will offer a presentation on his research on climate change and the desert tortoise
• The DPC’s own Pat Flanagan Pat Flanagan will speak about the “Making of a Naturalist” field trip curriculum DPC is funding for Imperial County students, and will provide update on Mojave Desert Land Trust successes.
• Chris Clarke (yours truly) will read some of his writing on Joshua trees.
• Ruth Nolan will introduce the new anthology of desert writing she edited for Heyday Books, and will speak on the “spirit” of the California desert, a place of inspiration and renewal, as embodied in the literature of the California desert.
• plus Special Guest Elden Hughes, lifelong protector of the desert and mentor to generations of activists, with a presentation on Senator Diane Feinstein’s forthcoming “Desert Conservation and Recreation Act.”

Lunch will be provided by DPC.

We’ll send all our members postcards with even more details and directions soon, and will keep you posted here on DesertBlog as well.

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The study, Energy Sprawl or Energy Efficiency: Climate Policy Impacts on Natural Habitat for the United States of America by McDonald, Fargione, Kiesecker, Miller and Powell, sponsored by the Nature Conservancy and published in the Public Library of Science, examined a range of energy sources and delivery modes, from biodiesel and ethanol to nuclear and geothermal.

The authors calculated the land area within the US required to meet our energy consumption levels based on assumptions in current cap and trade laws, then ranked each source of energy by its power output divided by the total land area that energy source would disrupt. The authors refer to this area used as “energy sprawl”: you’ll likely be hearing this useful coinage a lot in years to come.

Unsurprisingly, biofuels have the highest energy sprawl numbers of any of the energy sources studied. Ethanol, biomass-fueled electrical generation and biodiesel combined would require more than 2,500 square kilometers — about 960 mi² — per Terawatt-hour of energy generated per year. Nuclear and geothermal sit at the bottom of the list.

What is more surprising are the relative positions of coal-fired and solar electrical generation. Coal consumes almost 10 square kilometers per TW-hr/year, taking into account the devastating effect of surface mining, slag heap “storage,” and the infrastructure needed to transport and burn the stuff. But concentrating solar would use even more: 15.3 km² per TW-hr/year, and less-efficient photovoltaic generation would take a staggering four times the amount of land to generate the same amount of electricity as coal.

In other words: for every square mile of Appalachian mountain destroyed in coal mining, we’re faced with the prospect of paving somewhere between one-and-a-half and four square miles of desert instead to replace that coal-fired power with industrial solar.

Of course given the CO₂-driven ecological and social catastrophes that loom if we don’t stop burning coal, switching to solar power is imperative. And fortunately — sort of — we already have a staggering amount of land area that is permanently destroyed from a wildlife habitat perspective, that is thus suitable for photovoltaic power generation, and even some concentrating solar. It’s called “cities.”

Least surprising of all, the study found that conserving energy is by far the best choice from a land-use perspective. So turn off that AC.

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Harper Dry Lake, in the western Mojave between Barstow and California City, is not exactly wilderness. The lake is an historic airstrip serving the former town of Lockhart. It is ringed by alfalfa farms, most of them either fallow or abandoned. To the lake’s west is the Luz Solar Electric Generating Station, a 160-megawatt concentrating solar plant comprising the two largest solar fields in the world, covering most of what was Lockhart.

Most of the lake has been dry since the local agricultural economy overdrafted its groundwater, dried up, and blew away, but in its southwest corner the lake still holds marshes fed by runoff from a handful of nearby irrigated fields. Migratory and resident birds take full advantage of the open water, and thus the BLM has designated Harper Dry Lake a Area of Critical Environmental Concern. This designation, made possible by the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), is given to southwestern places the BLM has determined are in special need of protection to preserve the irreplaceable and rare habitat or other cultural qualities they possess.

Despite its possible lack of wilderness qualities, then, one might expect a certain respect for the lake and its habitat, given that it is one of a very few places in the western Mojave that has open water nearly year-round, an important resting place for migratory wildlife and a gorgeous, quiet oasis.

Sadly, that doesn’t keep people from riding their ORVs through the marsh.

This isn’t news, nor is it surprising to any of us who live with and love these desert landscapes. And the damage shown here isn’t nearly as dramatic as the damage done to the creosote flats that surround the lake, in northwestern San Bernardino and eastern Kern counties, by essentially unregulated ORV use — though it is ironic that with all the hundreds of miles of deserted roads and tracks in the area, people still come to this wildlife gem to ride. It’s just a reminder of how callously some of us treat these irreplaceable treasures, and a reminder that we have to work to keep this kind of damage from continuing.

For more on ORV abuse, check out ORV Watch Kern County, and keep an eye peeled here for the upcoming El Paisano, with lots of useful information compiled by DPC’s Terry Weiner.

Related posts:

1. And now the bad news While the Senate acted yesterday to protect wilderness across the...
2. California State Parks Still in Danger of Closure While the California legislature works this week to find alternative...
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