Save Pahrump Valley

What You Can Do

Conservation organizations nominated a high-value Mojave Desert habitat for protection to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), requesting the establishment of a 145,000-acre Pahrump Valley - Old Spanish Trail  Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) located just south of Pahrump, Nevada, in the Pahrump Valley, 35 miles from Las Vegas, Nevada. 

The ACEC would protect important cultural and natural resources. It would protect the viewshed for the Old Spanish National Historic Trail and Salt Song Trail. It would protect habitat for significant Mojave Desert species such as the Joshua tree, Mojave yucca, Gila monster, burrowing owl, American badger, the Pahrump buckwheat and the Parish’s club cholla—a cactus which is found on a limited range in Nevada and California. It would protect intact Pleistocene fossils of megafauna such as the Columbian mammoth. It would protect groundwater loving mesquite trees and associated neotropical migrant birds such as warblers and flycatchers that stop over in the Stump Spring area.

The area is seeing pressure to develop utility-scale solar projects and associated transmission lines on over 29,000 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 Pahrump Valley-Old Spanish Trail Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) as an alternative to the large-scale solar applications that are being proposed for BLM lands in the Pahrump Valley in the Mojave Desert, Nevada. At this point, there are over 29,000 acres of solar projects proposed for the region including 5 solar projects which BLM is reviewing at this time. The ACEC would provide a long-term protection to diverse high desert species, archeology sites, paleontological sites, and spectacular view-sheds. The region contains desert tortoise population densities of over 6 per square kilometer. 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 habitats for the species undeveloped. A significant portion of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail Nevada is located in the South Pahrump Valley and is threatened by solar energy development in the region. This area contains some of the nation's most valuable public lands and the Pahrump Valley-Old Spanish Trail ACEC presents a great opportunity to protect the valuable cultural and natural resources in the Pahrump Valley. 

Thank you,

(Your Name and Info Here)

An ACEC designation would not prevent existing recreational uses such as 4x4 off-highway vehicle use, horseback-riding, hiking, exploring, camping, hunting, and other uses of these public lands. The designation would direct the Bureau of Land Management to manage the lands to exclude solar project development.