Fall 2009

Arrowleaf balsamroot in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. Photo by Woods Wheatcroft

L et’s make sure that every renewable energy project—siting and transmission—is mitigated through two means: funding mecha-

nisms and additional landscape designations.

Whether you are a healthy newcomer to conservation who still finds acronyms painful, or a grizzled conservation veteran who actually knows that a BLM ACEC TMP Interim EA is required by NEPA, you are on the cusp of one of the great conservation oppor-tunities of our time.

Scientists tell us that the next 10 years are critical for combating the effects of climate change; without a halt to the rise in emissions, we lock in the worst of the effects. That means important pieces of the puzzle—energy conservation and efficiency—alone are not enough to stem the tide. Large-scale renewable energy projects on private and public lands will be accelerated in the next decade, and we will have to be smart from the start—know that we must miti-gate the damage to our wildlife habitats that we know we are caus-ing by this accelerated development. What’s the point of stemming the climate crisis, only to cause a loss of biodiversity with haphazard development of renewable sites and new transmission lines?

Money is a necessary but not sufficient factor in mitigation. If the right places and resources are not protected, billions cannot solve the problem. However, land designations alone are not the answer, either. You may protect millions of acres of habitat that are less valu-able for wildlife. But in tandem, funding and additional conservation designations, such as national conservation areas, wilderness, wild-life management areas and areas of critical environmental concern, can forge a powerful new direction for conservation.

Nevada’s wildlife habitats and renewable energy resources have already been assessed. Optimal renewable energy assessments for biomass, solar, wind, and geothermal superimposed on the Nevada Wildlife Action Plan (WAP) and the Governor’s Sage Grouse Plan (GSGP) reveal areas of conflict and opportunity. As the renewable energy zones are on paper, so too are the ideas for restoration and protection of wildlife habitat; but no money is available to fund them.

On to a real-life opportunity: the impending development of the Southwest Intertie Project (SWIP) in Eastern Nevada. SWIP is a

A Modest, Radical, Common Sense, Bold, yet Doable Proposal

500-mile transmission line to run from Idaho to southern Nevada with a focus on renewable energy. In Nevada, this line will be built on some of the most important habitat of the Great Basin sage grouse, directly eliminating at least 91 leks, or breeding grounds (see related article inside). The SWIP will be built, and the sage grouse habitat will be lost. What next?

Let’s use funding mechanisms from renewable energy projects (roy-alties, lease fees, etc.) to implement the recommendations of the WAP and the GSGP (acronyms!) Then, because we know that species can’t be saved by restoration alone, let’s identify areas away from the development where populations are healthy and give them an appropriate designation—say, a national conservation area—that will compensate for the lost leks along the SWIP line.

These steps, taken in concert with the renewable energy developer, can add up to a game-changing trifecta: real rural economic develop-ment in the new energy economy, “boots on the ground” restoration work that implements the vision of the WAP and GSGP, and a conser-vation designation for the sage grouse that can be a foundation for an effective, comprehensive conservation agreement that can pre-vent the bird’s listing as an endangered species.

- John Wallin, Director john.wallin@wildnevada.org

The Nevada Wilderness Project is a catalyst for wildlife habitat conservation, wilderness

preservation, and smart development of renewable energy. www.wildnevada.org

Find us in the digital soup:

www.wildnevada.orgwww.weethump.comhttp://twitter.com/wildnevadahttp://www.youtube.com/user/nevadawilderness

Become a Fan of the Nevada Wilderness Project on Facebook

Or real humans:8550 White Fir StreetReno, NV 89523Ph: 775-746-7851

C arbon dioxide emissions, the principal cause of global warm-ing, are an inevitable consequence of energy use. Every time

those of us here at NWP use electricity for lights, computers or a really close shave (rare, but we do clean up once in while), addi-tional carbon emissions are released into the atmosphere. To coun-ter this, The Nevada Wilderness Project has taken steps to reduce up to 200 metric tons of carbon emissions in the current year.

We partnered with TerraPass—an organization that helps busi-nesses, groups and individuals calculate their carbon footprint—to measure our footprint and buy carbon offsets. A carbon offset is a certificate representing the reduction of one metric ton (2,205 lbs) of carbon dioxide emissions. If a company develops a project that reduces carbon dioxide emissions, every ton of emissions reduced results in the creation of one carbon offset. Project developers can then sell these offsets to finance their projects (a wind farm or solar project, for example.)

Buying (or selling) off-sets is no substitute for conservation and environmental stew-ardship. Going through the calculating process, however, made us think about our everyday hab-its and some solutions: Bike to work more often. Carpool. No more elec-tric razors. (ok – not that any of us really have one, but you get the idea). Check out TerraPass via the link at the bottom of our homepage, www.wild nevada.org.

I t’s our 10th birthday, and we’ve been celebrating all

year ... but the biggest parties are happening this fall, when we’ll be host-ing the acclaimed Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival in both Reno and Las Vegas. These independent films are inspiring, positive stories about people around the world making a differ-ence for conservation, green energy and their local communities.

From cool to quirky to hilarious, shorts to longer features, this one-night film festival is appearing in 90 cities around the country—and we’ll be hosting it in Reno and Las Vegas.

In Reno:Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 7 pm Joe Crowley Student Union, University of Nevada-Reno cost: $10 in advance, $12 at the door ($8 with UNR student id)

In Las Vegas – two nights:Thursday, October 22, 2009, 7 pm Clark County Library 1401 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89119 (702) 507-3400 cost: free admission (Date and time for the second venue TBA)

Tickets will be available in advance and at the door. There’s more information at www.wildnevada.org, or feel free to call: 775-746-7851. National sponsors include Patagonia, Clif Bar, Osprey, Tom’s of Maine and Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.

Making Our Carbon Footprint Go Barefoot

NWP is Hosting the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival

Colorful lichens. Photo by Woods Wheatcroft

Black bear tracks. Photo by Kurt Kuznicki

Never Enough Gold Butte

O ne outing to Nevada’s “piece of the Grand Canyon puzzle,” located north-

east of Las Vegas and near the town of Mes-quite, and you’ll see why we’ve been work-ing so long and so tenaciously to protect it. Conde Nast Traveler magazine, in its July issue, named Gold Butte one of “America’s Forgotten Lands” and gave a shout out to the unwavering work of Nancy Hall, NWP’s Gold Butte Organizer, and Friends of Gold Butte volunteers Roy and Betsy Miller.

Author Jim Robbins writes, “After a short hike through rock-cobbled desert studded with Joshua trees, we enter a small canyon with red, brown, and gold walls. I’m pleas-antly surprised to realize that I am stand-ing in an aboriginal art gallery. Scratched and pecked into the desert varnish, the dark mineral patina that covers the walls, are mysterious symbols left by people who lived here a thousand years ago—spirals and arrows and figures of humans, usually in panels with dozens of other figures.”

This is just a small taste of why Gold Butte needs Congress to designate it as Wilder-ness and National Conservation Area – so the area gets the resources it deserves for better management, educational signage, more law enforcement and a secure future.

Here are a few other reasons:

• Vandals are destroying the area’s incred-ible petroglyphs and rock art by painting, scratching or shooting at them.

• Unlawful ORV riders are cutting random roads onto hillsides and across Native American and early pioneer historical sites.

• A fast-growing population of new resi-dents are visiting the area (this is a good thing). More visitors mean a greater need for interpretive materials, on-site law enforcement, and new opportunities for these visitors to become stewards of Gold Butte.

NWP, Friends of Gold Butte and the Nevada Wilderness Coalition are working with elected Clark County officials, leaders in Mesquite and Congresswoman Dina Titus’s staff to craft legislation protecting Gold Butte. (You may recall that legislation was

“Falling man” petroglyph, Gold Butte. Photo by Ron Hunter

introduced last year, but in the wake of the economic crisis and federal budget, did not come to vote). We are hopeful this legisla-tion will be introduced this fall. When that happens, we’ll be asking you to speak up for this magnificent area, urge our congress people to vote in favor of it, and make sure Gold Butte stays wild and protected for generations to come. Learn more at http://friendsofgoldbutte.blogspot.com

- Charlotte Overby, Communications Direc-tor, charlotte.overby@wildnevada.org

In Honor of National Public Lands Day

T he Nevada Wilderness Project and Friends of Gold Butte are hosting an

event to get us outside and doing some-thing positive for the public lands we all love. In Gold Butte, near the “falling man” site, volunteers are needed to install fenc-ing to define appropriate parking near the area, as well as to plant native plants along a walking trail.

When: Saturday, September 26

Time & Place: Contact Friends of Gold Butte for meeting places and car-pooling options at http://friendsofgoldbutte.blogspot.com. Or call 702-346-3723

National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance public lands. Last year, 120,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, removed trash and invasive plants, and planted over 1.6 million trees on our nation’s public lands. Nevada has more public land than any other state outside Alaska, so our work is cut out for us. Find out more and how you can get involved in other projects: http://www.publiclands-day.org/

Jumping for joy on our public lands. Photo by Woods Wheatcroft

Congresswoman Shelley Berkley2340 Paseo del Prado, Ste. D-106Las Vegas, NV 89102Ph: 702-220-9823 (Las Vegas)Ph: 202-225-5965 (Wash. DC)

Congressman Dean Heller600 Las Vegas Blvd., Suite 680Las Vegas, NV 89101Ph: 702-255-1651 (Las Vegas)Ph: 202-225-6155 (Wash. DC)

Congresswoman Dina Titus8215 S. Eastern Ave Suite 205 Las Vegas, NV 89123 Ph: 702-387-4941 (Las Vegas)Ph: 202-225-3252 (Wash. DC)

Please contact your Congressional Representative and ask them to support legislation for the Gold Butte National Conservation Area with Wilderness.

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C A L E N D A R

Wild Men of W i ld Nevada

CALENDAR-cover.indd 1 7/31/09 9:31:43 PM

NWP’s annual Wild Men of Wild Nevada Calendar is here and on

sale. Freshly put together by graphic designer, artist and NWP volunteer Sophie Binder (please check out her work at www.sbinderdesigns.com), these cal-endars feature 12 months, 12 naked men and 12 beautiful Nevada wilderness areas for your year-long viewing pleasure.

It Must be Fall… (Those 2010 Wild Men are Here!)

S age grouse are the largest of North America’s prairie grouse species, and

their numbers are declining throughout their range in the western U.S. and Can-ada. Experts attribute a myriad of factors to their decline, but the loss of critically important sagebrush-dominated habitat is perhaps the birds’ most significant chal-lenge. Geographically speaking, Nevada is important to sage grouse conservation because it is comprised of 87 percent public lands. The bird historically, and to a lesser degree, currently, was distributed throughout the sagebrush landscapes of central and northern Nevada.

So where does NWP play a role in the con-servation of this incredible native grouse species? We recognize that protection and wise use of land will be a key factor in the continued existence of sage grouse. NWP also recognizes the need for and supports green energy development in our state. We advocate “smart from the start” devel-opment of clean energy sources to satisfy future energy needs.

The challenge facing all of us is not to com-promise those all-important sagebrush-dominated landscapes, at the expense of the bird, in order to develop and utilize renewable energy.

The Nevada Wilderness Project is work-ing to identify areas where future energy development sites and energy transmission infrastructure will likely impact sage grouse habitats. We are working with other part-ners in sage grouse conservation to identify opportunities to mitigate the direct and indirect alteration or loss of sage grouse habitat through a variety of means. This may involve advocacy for legislative land protec-tion designations for important sage grouse habitat, pursuit of funding to improve and

Why is the Nevada Wilderness Project Involved with Sage Grouse Conservation?

restore sagebrush habitats, or research proj-ects to learn more about the bird in order to provide adequate protections.

The Nevada Department of Wildlife and a large cadre of conservation partners, including the federal land management agencies, have succeeded in completing conservation plans for sage grouse. A pre-scription for future sage grouse protection and conservation has been completed

Nothing raunchy! - Just a good, clean fundraising calendar with some of NWP’s best volunteers who wanted to show a little skin for the cause of wilderness pro-tection in their beloved Nevada. Take a peak at www.wildnevada.org and order several today! Or call us at 775-746-7851.

and received the support of federal, state, and local governments, along with numerous other partners that aided in the development of these conservation plans. NWP has chosen to lend our support and resources to this urgent effort to help this important sagebrush icon of Nevada, its native sage grouse.

Gregg Tanner, Rural Circuit Rider gregg.tan-ner@wildnevada.org

Pygmy rabbits and mule deer—in addition to sage grouse—also depend on sagebrush

habitat. Rabbit and sage grouse photos courtesy of U.S Fish & Wildlife Service. Mule deer photo by

Jim Boone (birdandhike.com)

S cientists tell us that the next 10 years are critical for combat-ing the effects of climate change; without a halt in the rise

in emissions, we lock in the worst of the effects. That’s why the Obama administration and Congress are scrambling for ways to accelerate utility-scale (10 megawatts or larger) renewable energy projects on public lands.

Recently, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar joined Senator Harry Reid in Las Vegas to unveil 24 areas to evaluate for utility-scale solar energy development in six Western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Seven of those 24 places are in Nevada: Amargosa Valley (32,699 acres), Dry Lake (16,516 acres), Delamar Valley (17,932 acres), Dry Lake Valley North (49,775 acres), East Mormon Mountain (7,418 acres), Gold Point (5,830acres), and Millers (19,205 acres). These areas will undergo

Seven “Fast-tracked” Solar Study Areas in the Silver StateTome Acción! Passez à l’action! Harekete Geçin! Iverksett handling! Podjęcie działań! Социологически изследвания! 采取行动! ... or in English: Take Action.

a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) that will assess impacts to the environment from every stage of the project: the siting, development, operating and, eventually, the decommis-sioning of these projects.

At the Nevada Wilderness Project, we think these are generally good areas for in-depth study. We look at a number of factors when considering the suitability of project sites: state and federal biological data, whether the area is diminished by invasive spe-cies, previous land use patterns and cultural resource information, to name just a few of the filters we apply. We also try to take into account the type of development that would occur, favoring those technologies that better suit the desert ecosystem (less water-intensive photovoltaics are better than certain water-intensive concentrated solar projects, for example.)

As we consider these factors, we also advocate for what we call “smart from the start” projects. These projects include conserva-tion mitigation, including funding mechanisms and landscape protective designations (see the front page story from the Director on this issue). We think there are a number of good opportunities for conservation mitigation on the areas chosen by the Depart-ment of Interior.

The public has until September 14 to comment on these areas. Please take time to submit your comments to the BLM, and ask them to fully incorporate issues of wildlife, habitat, biological diversity and mitigation in their study process. Mail them to:

Solar Energy PEISArgonne National Laboratory 9700 S. Cass Avenue EVS/900 Argonne, IL 60439

You may also submit them online: http://solareis.anl.gov

As we prepare our comments, we’ll post them on our website and encourage you to check out the details at www.wildnevada.org for more information and how you can get involved.

Hiking in the North Pahroc range, looking east over Dry Lake and Delamar Valley—two solar development study sites. Photo by Ron Hunter

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Alamo

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Beatty

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Millers19,200 acres

Dry Lake Valley North49,770 acres

Amargosa Valley32,700 acres

Dry Lake16,520 acres

Delamar Valley17,930 acres

Gold Point5,829 acres

East Mormon Mountain

7,418 acres

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Seven Proposed Solar Study Areas

in Nevada

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Please make checks payable to: Nevada Wilderness Project

Send your contribution and information to:Nevada Wilderness Project8550 White Fir StreetReno, NV 89523

Or you may donate securely online at www.wildnevada.orgThank you.

I would like to make a contribution of (please check one):

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Contact Us

8550 White Fir StreetReno, NV 89523 Tel: 775.746.7850

NEVADA WILDERNESS PROJECT www.wildnevada.org

T-shirts are 10 dollars in honor of our 10th birthday We have great NWP t-shirts (organic cotton & fabulous designs!) on sale on our website, discounted to celebrate our birthday and to make sure they reach the backs of wilderness fans far and wide.

You can see more t-shirt photos on www.wildnevada.org. Click the “Join Us” tab and scroll down.

Out of coffee? – Don’t stress! You can order some from Grounds for Change, a family-owned coffee-roasting business, specializing in 100% Fair Trade, organic, delicious coffee. Plus, they’ll donate 15% of the sale to the Nevada Wilderness Project if you place orders from NWP’s website. So go to www.wildnevada.org and click the “Join Us” tab, then go to “Fun Things for Sale.”