Solar Power: Saving or ruining our wilderness?

Text by Alyson Sheppard

Last month, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed an order to set aside more than 1,000 square miles--670,000 acres--of Bureau of Land Management land to review as "Solar Energy Study Areas," part of the Department of Energy's solar power initiative. Stagnant since 2003, the initiative's goal is to allow construction of 1,000 megawatts of concentrated solar power systems in the southwest by 2010. Maps of the 24 tracks of public land under consideration for large-scale, commercial solar energy farms are now available online.

Salazar has vowed to push 13 “commercial-scale” solar projects into construction phase by the end of next year in six states: Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. In order for land to be considered, it must be near existing roads and transmission lines, have at least three square miles with solar exposure, and have suitable slopes for solar collection. According to the DOE, wilderness, high-conservation-value lands, and lands with conflicting uses were excluded in the selection process.

However, in March, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California pledged to fight the construction of solar plants on the study areas between the Mojave Desert preserve and the Joshua Tree National Park, citing environmental hazard. And the Nevada Wilderness Project has noted one of the Nevada study areas is in a bighorn sheep migration path. Read more about the energy plans in the Energy Bulletin here.

Is construction falling on some of your favorite wilderness? Let us know in the comment section below.

The Adventure Life With Steve Casimiro: Into the Wild Flowers

Text and photographs by West Coast Editor Steve Casimiro

The desert in bloom is a terrestrial Milky Way, the bright blossoms standing in sharp contrast to the dry vacuum surrounding them. Across the Southwest, last winter’s consistent rains have created one of the best wild flower seasons in years. And while flower sniffing has always seemed a soft pursuit to me, it makes one heck of a good reason to throw on a backpack and get out there. So, last weekend, we did.

See more photos and discover seven great places to see springtime flowers in California and Arizona >>