Advocating for the Preservation of Desert Wildlands
Diamondback
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I got these photos of what I am pretty sure is a Western Diamonback rattlesnake while on a hike with my brother in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, deep in the Sonoran Desert. Luckily it heard me coming, and gave me some warning!
Great photos - looks like it to me. They don't always warn. See these in the yard sometimes; while mountain biking, one was resting in the shade...glad I went into a tricky place and had to walk my bike through that time, or I would have been going faster and maybe struck by that diamondback! (at least their venom is not as bad as that of Mojave rattlers, or so I've heard)
When I was about 13 back home in the piney woods of south Georgia, while exploring a section of those woods I heard a loud rattle very close- I froze still, did not move, didn't even move my head to look- and after what seemed like a lifetime the buzzing sound went away, and I came out of my frozen state and lit out for the dirt road.
I have experienced nothing like that since, and hope to never irritate another rattlesnake in my lifetime. Being about 2 miles via dirt road walking from my house, I would never have survived a bite from what probably was a very large, eastern diamondback.
The Trump administration is again touting the practice of mowing thousands of acres of desert vegetation as environmentally-responsible, despite a preponderance of evidence to the contrary. The draft environmental review of the Yellow Pine Solar project in southern Nevada claims that vegetation mowing - as opposed to bulldozing - will yield positive outcomes that are highly doubtful. This positive framing of the construction practice misleads the public and decisionmakers and ignores decades of scientific research regarding the impacts of mechanized disturbance on desert wildlands. According to the draft environmental review: "Mowing is becoming the standard on large site-type ROWs to prevent permanent impairment of public lands (as mandated by FLPMA) and in lieu of off-site mitigation... Mowing methods are designed to help preserve soils, biological soil crusts, soil seed banks, native perennial vegetation diversity and structure, and cacti and yucca species, and to resist
The Trump Administration this month released an assessment that concludes that a solar developer can crush and mow vegetation across several square miles of prime desert tortoise habitat, and still consider those lands as viable habitat for the species. The silence of some national-level environmental groups regarding the unconventional and unscientific conclusion appears to signal their comfort taking risks with a species already facing significant peril, as well as these groups' inability to champion more sustainable locations to generate clean energy in Nevada. The biological opinion released by the Trump Administration constitutes the official position of the Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the impacts of the proposed Gemini Solar project; its curious willingness to declare heavily disturbed lands as viable tortoise habitat was necessary for the project's approval because the project would be built on lands that have been identified as a vital habitat linkage sustai
The Department of Interior in early June released its draft environmental review indicating that plans to replace 11 square miles of intact desert wildlands in southern Nevada with the Gemini Solar project would result in significant impacts on wildlife and outdoor recreation. The project proposed by Arevia Power would install photovoltaic solar panels on land that is currently home to rare plants, desert kit fox, tortoises and other wildlife. Photovoltaic solar panels are just as easily installed on rooftops, parking lot canopies, and on already-disturbed lands, calling in to question the need to sacrifice desert wildlands to generate electricity. (California has installed over 8,000 megawatts of distributed solar generation with relatively modest policy incentives.) Arevia Power's plans to destroy these Mojave wildlands will displace or kill nearly at least 260 desert tortoises, and dozens of kit foxes and burrowing owls , according to the draft environmental impac
Great photos - looks like it to me. They don't always warn. See these in the yard sometimes; while mountain biking, one was resting in the shade...glad I went into a tricky place and had to walk my bike through that time, or I would have been going faster and maybe struck by that diamondback! (at least their venom is not as bad as that of Mojave rattlers, or so I've heard)
ReplyDeleteWhen I was about 13 back home in the piney woods of south Georgia, while exploring a section of those woods I heard a loud rattle very close- I froze still, did not move, didn't even move my head to look- and after what seemed like a lifetime the buzzing sound went away, and I came out of my frozen state and lit out for the dirt road.
ReplyDeleteI have experienced nothing like that since, and hope to never irritate another rattlesnake in my lifetime. Being about 2 miles via dirt road walking from my house, I would never have survived a bite from what probably was a very large, eastern diamondback.