Basin & Range Watch
Hiking............Solar Energy Issues.......Wind.......Alerts........Flora........Birding.........Wildlife........Cartoons.........Links........About Us............Guest Book
WELCOME
Basin and Range Watch is a group of volunteers who live in the deserts of Nevada and California, working to stop the destruction of our desert homeland. Industrial renewable energy companies are seeking to develop millions of acres of unspoiled habitat in our region. Our goal is to identify the problems of energy sprawl and find solutions that will preserve our natural ecosystems and open spaces.
Come visit and experience the great beauty of spring wildflowers, vast open vistas, bird watching trails, and wildlife viewing.
Black-throated sparrow
Renewable Energy Projects We Are Following:
Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System
BrightSource's solar thermal power tower proposal in Ivanpah Valley, San Bernardino County, California >>here
ISEGS Final Staff Assessment/Draft Environmental Impact Statement - Our Analysis and Comments >>here.
BLM Open House - February 4, 2010 - Needles, CA >>here
NextLight Silver State South and North
Photovoltaic panel proposal in Ivanpah Valley, Clark County, Nevada >>here
Solar Millennium Amargosa Farm Road Project
Solar thermal parabolic trough proposal with storage in Amargosa Valley, Nye County, Nevada >>here
Pacific Solar Big Dune Photovoltaic Project
7,500-acre project in Amargosa Valley, Nevada, on rare and endemic beetle habitat >>here.
Calico Solar project (SES Solar1)
Chuckwalla Valley Solar Energy Study Areas
Many applications for giant solar developments in this Colorado Desert area of Riverside County, California >>here. Updates >>here.
First Solar Desert Sunlight >>here.
Owens Lake Solar project
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power seeks to control dust by industrializing part of this important migratory bird habitat in the Owens Valley, Inyo County, California >>here.
Searchlight Wind Energy Project
Duke Energy's proposal to place giant wind turbines over the Searchlight Hills, Clark County, Nevada >>here
Spring Valley Wind Energy Project
Pattern Energy wants to build up to 85 giant 400-foot tall wind turbines in Spring Valley east of Ely, Nevada, 12 miles from the boundary of Great Basin National Park. The site is home to Pygmy rabbits, Sage grouse, and Pronghorn antelope. DEADLINE for Comments January 15, 2010! >>here.
Mohave County Wind Energy Project
On the White Hills and fan next to Lake Mead National Recreation Area in northwestern Arizona, near Mt. Tipton Wilderness and by places where California condors have been sighted from Grand Canyon reintroductions >>here.
Transmission Projects:
Green Path North Transmission Project
Eldorado-Ivanpah Transmission Project
Southern California Edison proposal to upgrade and add lines in southern Nevada and eastern California in Ivanpah Valley, to deliver future renewable energy to coastal cities >>here.
Policy:
Solar Energy Development on Federal Lands: The Road to Consensus
Congressional Field Hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. Chaired by Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), hosted by Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Palm Springs) >>here.
Solar Energy Study Areas
Bureau of Land Management plan to designate renewable energy zones in the desert Southwest >>here.
Fast-Tracking Renewable Energy
California Renewable Energy Coordination Offices, Renewable Energy Action Team, and the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan >>here. California Fast-Track solar and wind projects >>here. November 2009 summary of projects in Chuckwalla Valley >>here; more projects >>here.
Nevada Fast-Track Projects >>here.
Senator Feinstein Bill: California Desert Protection Act of 2010
Proposal for Mojave Trails National Monument and Sands to Snow National Monument, some new wilderness areas, some wilderness study areas removed, and a giant plan for a Mitigation Zone for renewable energy projects >>here.
All Renewable Energy Issues >>here
^Scraper-graders lines up ready for work to expand the thin-film photovoltiac solar field at Copper Mountain Solar Project in the Boulder City "Green Zone" of Clark County, Nevada. Lush creosote desert will have to be destroyed. Why can't these PV panels go on city rooftops? Many other large-scale thin-film solar projects are planned for other desert ecosystems, as in Chuckwalla Valley, California, and Amargosa Valley, Nevada.
^January 27, 2010 - Panamint Valley Lake after the rains that fell for days in Death Valley National Park.
First Solar Desert Sunlight in Chuckwalla Valley >>here
Sand Lizards of the Desert: Fringe-toed Lizards >>here
Renewable Energy NEWS >1,>2,>3,>4
Wind and Solar Applications Next to Kingston Range Wilderness >>here
MINING NEWS >>here
OHV NEWS >>here
Hiking the Desert
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Ibex Dunes, Death Valley National Park >>here Chuckwalla Valley and Chuckwalla Bench, CA >>here Chemehuevi Mountains Wilderness, CA >>here Stateline Wilderness, CA >>here Mount Tipton Wilderness, AZ >>here Mount Jefferson, Toquima Range, NV >>here Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, NV >>here
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Journey to the Sky: Toquima Range Hike Up Mount Jefferson
Land of Ocotillo and Granite:
Explore Chemehuevi Mountains Wilderness
"In the first place you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you'll see something, maybe."
--Edward Abbey, 1967, Desert Solitaire
MORE CARTOONS >>here.
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