“The Bureau’s focused attempt to build as much solar as possible on public lands in Nevada will contribute to the ongoing decline and potential extinction of the Mojave desert tortoise,” said Kevin Emmerich, Co-founder of Basin and Range Watch.  “At this point, there are three other solar applications in the area totaling an additional 16,000 acres of potential habitat destruction.”

Individual tortoises are affected by interruptions in landscape connectivity, which  prevents breeding and other social interactions resulting in a loss of genetic and demographic connectivity among individuals and populations. In the Las Vegas Valley, tortoise connectivity simply no longer exists due to the dense urbanization. But the remaining open space from the Indian Springs Valley, west through the Mercury, Amargosa and eventually Pahrump Valleys is a habitat connectivity corridor, which is exactly where the proposed solar project would be located.

During the early planning stages of this project, conservation organizations submitted a proposed alternative to protect this valuable habitat as the Cactus Springs Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC), but the Bureau has rejected the proposal and is determined to convert valuable habitat into industrial solar energy sacrifice zones. The Bureau is required by the National Environmental Policy Act to consider a range of reasonable alternatives and has finalized a Public Lands Conservation rule placing conservation on equal par with other land uses but has ignored the proposal to protect the most important desert tortoise connectivity habitat in Nevada. 

“The Bureau is saying that a Conservation Alternative like our Cactus Springs ACEC nomination is not in the scope of review of the proposed solar project, but we strongly disagree,” said Laura Cunningham with Western Watersheds Project. “This Mojave Desert landscape was supposed to be protected from development in order to balance the loss of habitat in southern Nevada. We are putting the new public lands rule to a test, and it appears to be failing already. The agency must do its job and balance development with conservation.”

The desert tortoise was listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1990. Under federal law, adult desert tortoises must be removed from the construction site by a crew of authorized desert tortoise biologists, but this does not apply to the juvenile tortoises. It is likely that hundreds of juvenile desert tortoises will be crushed and killed during the construction of this project. 

The project area is in the closed Wheeler Wash Allotment, once grazed by cattle, but now part of the Clark County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan that conserves tortoise habitat as mitigation for the growth of Las Vegas. Unfortunately, those mitigation gains will be obliterated by the construction of this project. 

“The desert tortoise has experienced major losses in numbers throughout its range including a 39 percent loss from 2004 to 2014,” Emmerich said. “Drought, subsidized predation, urban sprawl and solar energy are some of the major drivers of this decline. Industrial-scale solar energy development has destroyed close to 100,000 acres of habitat for the species – so far”. 

Support the Cactus Springs Area of Critical Environmental Concern

Conservation organizations nominated a high-value Mojave Desert habitat for protection to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), requesting the establishment of a 58,000-acre Cactus Springs Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) located just north of Cactus Springs, Nevada, in the Indian Springs Valley northwest of Las Vegas. The region has been described by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as the “most critical desert tortoise connectivity corridor in Nevada.”

The site also contains important habitat for other significant Mojave Desert species such as the Mojave yucca, Gila monster, burrowing owl, American badger, and the rare Parish’s club cholla—which is found on a limited range in Nevada and California. Cactus Springs is a unique spring mound wetland supporting cottonwood, honey mesquite and a variety of avian species including phainopepla and Great blue heron. 

The area is seeing pressure to develop utility-scale solar projects and associated transmission projects on over 20,000 acres of this local habitat. The ACEC is proposed as an alternative to sprawling solar energy projects on these important public lands. Solar energy disturbs no habitat when placed on rooftops and over parking lots. 

Below is a letter that can be copied and sent to the BLM in support of the ACEC. The letter can be sent to the BLM Director, Tracy Stone Manning at tstonemanning@blm.gov. Or mail to:

Director Tracy Stone-Manning

Bureau of Land Management

1849 C Street NW

Washington, DC 20240

Dear Ms. Stone-Manning,

I am writing this letter to ask you to establish a Cactus Springs Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) as an alternative to the large-scale solar applications that are being proposed for the Indian Springs Valley and Mercury Valley in the Mojave Desert, Nevada. At this point, there are over 20,000 acres of solar projects proposed for the region including Bonanza Solar which BLM is reviewing at this time. The ACEC would provide a long-term projection to diverse high desert species, unique wetlands and spectacular view-sheds. The Fish and Wildlife Service has identified the area as being "the most critical desert tortoise connectivity corridor in Southern Nevada". The desert tortoise is protected under the Endangered Species Act and has seen a range-wide decline of 37 percent. Now is the time to keep important identified habitat for the species undeveloped. Nevada contains some of the nation's most valuable public lands and the Cactus Springs ACEC presents a great opportunity to not only protect the desert tortoise, but also additional valuable resources in the area. 

Thank you,

(Your Name and Info Here)

Basin & Range Watch Nominates a New Area of Critical Environmental Concern To Protect Tortoise Connectivity, Rare Cactus, and Desert Spring Mounds

September 19, 2022, Indian Springs Valley NV - Basin & Range Watch and colleagues are nominating the Cactus Springs Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) in Clark and Nye Counties, Nevada, north of Indian Springs on Bureau of Land Management land, in order to protect rare plants, cactus diversity, Cactus Springs water resources, and the most significant Mojave desert tortoise connectivity corridor in southern Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) state office is pushing back against an ACEC here, but we persisted and the ACEC is being considered (begrudgingly) in BLM's environmental review of the proposed Bonanza Solar Project application, which lies squarely in the midst of the trotoise connectivity corridor. See https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2020905/570

The Cactus Springs ACEC nomination submitted to the Bureau of Land Management can be viewed below on the Basin and Range Watch digital public library on Google drive, and you can download the PDF. 

The rare cactus Parish club-cholla (Grusonia parishii) grows on the alluvial fans here on the eastern flank of the Spring Range, Nevada. This spreading cactus is found only in small areas of southern Nevada and the California Desert, and is threatened by numerous utility-scale solar projects. Perhaps the low, spreading growth form helps this cactus to catch sheet-flow rainwater as rainstorms pour off the high Spring Range. These photos are on and near the proposed Bonanza Solar Project application site.

Cactus Springs is a small spring mound that still has water, not flowing, but the pool is stable at the moment. There are several other old relict spring mounds nearby that are dry. The water table is near the ground surface here, and allows a green oasis of cottonwood trees and honey mesquites to flourish, attracting birds such as Phainopeplas which feed on mistletoe berries. How will groundwater pumping for utility-scale solar project construction impact this delicate and rare desert oasis? This is one reason we nominated the area as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, to protect this spring, the trees, birds, cacti, tortoises, and ancient trails.