Yellow Pine Solar

In Early May 2020, lilac sunbonnets (Langloisia setosissima) sprinkled across the alluvial desert floor on the site of the proposed Yellow Pine Solar Facility.

Before the Solar Project

This was a pristine, undisturbed, beautiful, biodiverse Mojave Desert basin in Nye and Clark Counties, Nevada on the California border. These are photos we took of the Yellow Pine Solar Project site before the construction. The project was approved despite local outcry. Scroll down this page for construction photos.

<Mojave yuccas.

May 8, 2020 - Pahrump Valley, Clark County NV - Basin and Range Watch submitted comments on Bureau of Land Management's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Yellow Pine Solar Project, which closed on May 4, 2020. We found many deficiencies in the analysis, including a lack of proper--or any--detailed discussion of mitigation measures, and a poor review of Visual Resources. The mitigation seems to be to shift the project north of the Tecopa Highway and call it done.

Despite the fact that 90,000 Mojave yuccas grow on the proposes solar project site, and are proposed to be mulched, bulldozed, mowed, and graded down to make way for photovoltaic panels which should go over parking lots and rooftops in already-developed areas.

Mojave yuccas and desert pavement of packed limestone gravel, Pahrump Valley, Nevada. Site of the proposed Yellow Pine Solar facility.

Lilac sunbonnets blooming abundantly this spring after heavy late season rains.

Lilac sunbonnets and interestingly banded limestone rock on alluvial fan, on the proposed project site.

The Proposed Action would be divided into four unique sub-areas to avoid three large washes that cross the study area, according to BLM, yet this map by Brian... show that the entire solar project lies in an active alluvial fan fed by a large snow-melt and storm-fed watershed in the high Spring Range. The draft EIS avoids any discussion of how the project will avoid being damaged by future flash floods and debris flows.

Tall Mojave yuccas

A tree-like Mojave yucca on the proposed Yellow Pine Solar Facility site. This yucca was most likely bulldozed down to make way for solar arrays which should have been built over parking losts. 2020.

High Quality Desert Tortoise Habitat

March 3, 2019 - Pahrump Valley NV - The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will release the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Yellow Pine Solar Project in mid-April. This will be a 3,000 acre photovoltaic project located in the South Pahrump Valley, Nevada on pristine, Mojave Desert habitat for rooftop friendly solar panels. It is very good desert tortoise habitat. Combined with the proposed Gemini Solar Project to the south, the BLM is about to approve the removal of 10,000 acres of desert tortoise habitat. The region is recovering from a drought, so the tortoise count is not as high as Gemini. They found 53 on the survey. But the US Fish and Wildlife Service has identified the site as one of the last important in tact desert tortoise connectivity sites in the Mojave Desert. A 4.6 square mile solar project will change this. The BLM tells us that all Joshua trees and Mojave yuccas on the site will be shredded and mulched. The original application was 9,000 acres. The project will be built right next to a new desert tortoise translocation area. This area was put aside to relocate tortoises from other development projects. The project will be built next to and be visible from the Old Spanish Trail.

Large healthy desert tortoise in its burrow on the north side of the Tecopa Highway, where several environmental organizations are accepting "mitigating" the project impacts by moving the solar field to this side. We are not all right with moving the solar project to the north side of the highway, as this desert tortoise will now have to be dug out of this burrow and transloacted somewhere else, risking mrotality from predation or hyperthermia.

Active desert tortoise burrow on the north side of Tecopa road before the Yellow Pine Solar Project was approved. Now that the solar project is under construction here we wonder what happened to this tortoise. It was most likely dug out of its burrow and translocated, possibly suffering mortality as one third of moved tortoises did.

The richly biodiverse Mojave Desert scrub below the Spring Range, with Mojave yuccas. This is the north side of the Yellow Pine Project, where many stakeholders have agreed to move the project to "lessen impacts." We disagree that impacts will be lessened, and oppose any part of this desert being bulldozed.

Desert horned lizard

Desert horned lizard at sunset on the proposed project site.The Joshua trees and Mojave yuccas will go in the shredder, lizards will be crushed, and desert tortoise will be excavated and moved – all for solar panels that don’t care if they go on a rooftop.

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