Mojave Desert Blog

The City of Victorville, one of the largest population centers in the western Mojave Desert, is nearing insolvency under nearly $500 million of debt, according to the Wall Street Journal.   Victorville has mishandled millions of dollars of bonds accounts and shifted funds without city council authorization.   The city has already slashed many of its employees from the payroll, and many citizens complain of deteriorating infrastructure and crime.  Nevertheless, Victorville is still investing in ambitious and unnecessary plans, such as a 32 square mile expansion and the High Desert Corridor (E-220) , a new highway connecting Lancaster and Victorville.   Most residents probably would prefer the City reinvest in existing infrastructure and open up a new east-west route within the city (the Nisqualli overpass) to alleviate burdensome traffic before expanding the city limits and building an unwanted highway. Victorville officials ran up some of the 500 million in debt when consultants pro

According to an interview of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) president Michael Peevey by mydesert.com , the State of California supports distributed solar generation (such as rooftop solar) and is in favor of policy changes that makes it easier for taxpayers and businesses to benefit from distributed generation.  The State's support for distributed generation is critical to the preservation of desert wildlands, since solar installations in our cities and on our rooftops are far more efficient and economical than massive facilities in the middle of the desert. Clearing the Way for Distributed Generation According to CPUC president Peevey, he is staunchly in favor of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), which allows a homeowner to finance a rooftop solar installation over time through their property tax.   Rooftop solar generally increases property values, and cuts down electricity costs over time.   Peevey criticized the Federal Housing Finance Administra

The US Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) decision not to list the flat-tailed horned lizard as an endangered species has been posted online, and a PDF copy is available below via scribd.  The lizard inhabits sandy hardpan or gravel flats in the Coachella Valley and Sonoran Desert, which lies south of the Mojave Desert ecosystem. The assessment confirms that the Coachella Valley population of the flat-tailed horned lizard will likely see significant threats within the foreseeable future, and admits that the Coachella Valley Habitat Conservation Plan has not yet preserved the lizard's last remaining habitat in the area.   Nonetheless, because of conservation and land management efforts throughout the rest of its range, the USFWS believes the species remains viable and does not warrant endangered status. FTHL ruling FWS-R8-ES-2010-0008-0042

According to the Los Angeles Times, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) decided not to list the Flat-Tailed Horned Lizard on the Endangered Species list after reviewing the proposal since last year.  The lizard has been relegated to a fraction of its former range--which used to span the Sonoran Desert--but the USFWS assessed that inter-agency and local conservation efforts have set aside sufficient land to keep the species viable. Despite the ruling, the lizard still faces a slew of threats from illegal off-highway vehicle use, solar energy facilities, new transmission lines, and urban growth, which continue to constrain its remaining habitat.  One massive solar facility--the Imperial Valley Solar power project--would deprive the flat-tailed horned lizard of nearly 9.6 square miles of habitat.  USFWS acknowledges that some threats from energy development persists, but judges that the energy applications do not threaten the designated management areas. Regarding urban encroachm

New research by the University of California suggests we should take a harder look at the potential carbon sequestration capacity of America's deserts.  According to the study, disturbing approximately 11 square miles of desert habitat could release 6,000 metric tons of carbon per year.  That is roughly the equivalent of putting a fleet of 5,300 SUVs on the road, each traveling 120 miles per month.  Desert plants and soil organisms take in and store tons of carbon each year.   When the desert habitat is destroyed, not only does it lose its ability to capture and store carbon, but carbon locked into the soils is likely to be released. According to the study: When desert plants grow, they absorb carbon dioxide (CO2). The carbons (C), as sugars, move into the roots and soil organisms.  Carbon dioxide is respired back into the soil, part of which reacts with calcium (Ca) in the soil to form calcium carbonate.  This is how our deserts sequester large amounts of C and thus function to r

In late February, the Department of Interior reversed its longstanding position in favor of a landfill just outside of Joshua Tree National Park.  For 24 years the Department of Interior supported legal efforts by a company to establish the world's largest landfill just outside of Joshua Tree National Park, where several square miles of canyons would have been filled with 20,000 tons of garbage each day.  The trash, and 24 hour dumping operations would have brought air pollution and subsidized predators that threaten the protected ecosystems that provide peace to many visitors each year.  Over 1.4 million Americans visited Joshua Tree National Park last year, and they came to see beautiful desert vistas, wildlife, and wildflowers, not trash. The efforts to reverse Department of Interior's position were spearheaded by two citizens concerned about misguided policy in California's deserts--Donna and Larry Charpied.  At issue is the landfill company's proposed land sw

I just finished reading A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California by Laura Cunningham.  The author uses her experience as a biologist and artist to reconstruct ecosystems and interactions of California's past using what we know of nature today.  You do not need to be a biologist to appreciate this experience. The book will take you to California's shoreline, oak savannas,  a pristine Delta ecosystem, and deserts, allowing you to observe the interactions among plant and wildlife as it existed in the past.  But this is not just a history book, either.  The author uses her field work observing relict or remaining populations of natural life to reconstruct the past and explain how these landscapes continue to evolve today.  For example, she vividly describes and sketches the majestic California condor and how it behaves with other birds based on hours of her own studies, and recounts her observation of elk herds being stalked by wolves in Yellowstone, where the two spe

Basin and Range Watch posted a review of the proposed desert tortoise habitat mitigation plan being considered by BrightSource Energy LLC.  The company's Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System is being built on 5.6 square miles of public land, and has already displaced as many as 50 endangered desert tortoises.   As part of it's agreement allowing the company to bulldoze and operate on public land, the company must purchase several thousand acres of privately held desert as mitigation -- the land must serve as good quality desert tortoise habitat and habitat for other special status species affected by the massive solar project. The mitigation land under consideration near the Castle Peaks in the northeastern Mojave Desert is mostly at an elevation higher than 4,000 feet, which is above the average range of the desert tortoise.  The proposed site also does not host many of the rare plants that will be destroyed by the Ivanpah solar project Desert experts have raised seri