Mojave Desert Blog

The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors has not yet voted on whether or not to repeal current County Ordinance # 3973, which mandates that private property owners obtain a permit in order to hold large off-road vehicle (ORV) gatherings. If you are interested in voicing your opinion on this issue, you still have time to call or contact the Supervisors, and there contact info can be found at the County website .  At the time of my previous post on this issue, it appeared that the Board could vote on the ordinance by the end of January.  It is no longer clear when this vote will make the agenda, since it does not appear on the February 9 agenda on their website.

The California Wilderness Coalition is sponsoring a workshop in Victorville on February 11th to discuss Senator Feinstein's California Desert Protection Act 2010 (CDPA 2010) and what you can do to ensure preservation of Mojave Desert wilderness.   You can read my initial posts on CDPA 2010 here and here.   Here is the relevant information if you're interested in attending the workshop: Location: Sterling Inn - 17738 Francesca Road Victorville, CA 92395-5105 Date: February 11th, 2010 Time: 630-830PM contact: lwilliams@calwild.org

An agenda has been announced for the April 8-11 2010 Western Wilderness Conference, to be held in Berkeley California.  The conference discussions and speakers will address an array of issues regarding efforts to manage and conserve wilderness throughout the Western US, but there will be a workshop focused on the "Campaign for the California Desert: Then and Now."  You can get more information on the Western Wilderness website .

The California Energy Commission (CEC) indicated in early February that it sought to release it's Staff Assessment--which is usually accompanied by the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)--for the Abengoa Solar project in March 2010.   The Abengoa Solar project would be built north of Helendale and west of Barstow.  You can read more about the Abengoa Solar project in one of my previous posts , but ultimately this project's primary vulnerability is its cooling system, which will require millions of gallons of water a year.  According to the CEC, it is still waiting on more information from Abengoa Solar to complete its analysis of the soil and water impacts.

That's right folks, if you are special enough to have access to ample capital, financing and real estate in the Mojave you can lay claim to thousands of acre-feet of water (1 acre foot = 325,851 gallons) deposited underneath the Mojave Desert, and earn $50 million dollars per year for as long as the water lasts, according to a Business Week article.  Unfortunately, this treasure hunt can impact the wildlife and people of the Southwest long after the treasure is spent.   Cadiz Inc, which has been growing lemons and raisins on some of its Mojave land as it conducted studies to ascertain the volume of subterranean water it could sell, is planning to pump that water as soon as it can manage the paper work.  The Cadiz funded study, conducted by CH2M Hill, suggests there is enough water for up to 400,000 people in the aquifer.  Although Feinstein has voiced opposition to the pumping, the political forces in California are likely to swamp the Senator's clout. So what's the big d

The California Public Utilities Commission ( CPUC ) approved of Southern California Edison's (SCE) proposal to develop up to 500 megawatts of energy using distributed solar generation, which would largely consist of contracting with "Independent Power Producers" to install roof-top photovoltaic solar panels.  As SCE, and possible Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)--which is also considering distributed solar generation--standardize the process for distributed solar generation the benefits of this model may take root and alleviate some of the pressure on the Mojave Desert. Distributed generation can take the form of up to 1 or 2 megawatts of generation from panels placed on top of large commercial buildings, raised over parking lots, etc.  Compared to the vast "utility-scale" projects being proposed in pristine Mojave Desert habitat, distributed generation will bring considerable savings since it will not require a large transmission network, it takes advant

A recent study published by the US Geological Survey Fort Collins Science Center indicates that wind turbines kill certain species of bats possibly through direct impact but also because of significant changes in air pressure caused by the rotating blades.  This is an additional factor that needs to be considered in when assessing the impact of wind energy projects in the Mojave, such as the Granite Mountain site near Apple Valley.  Researchers are still studying what factors may be drawing the bats to wind turbines, and which species are the most vulnerable, but the study estimates that some sites may be responsible for the deaths of thousands of bats each year.  An increase in wind energy farms in the Mojave could significantly impact a key pollinator and insect predator.   Ideally research will be able to identify what is causing the deaths and inform the siting and design of wind energy farms so that this renewable energy source can be tapped.  Bird and bat deaths aside, wind