Our proposal to protect 850,000 acres of magnificent intact landscape with significant cultural and wildlife resources in Esmeralda County is yet again under immediate serious threat! We need YOU to speak up NOW to help save this vast expanse of public land before it becomes an industrial solar facility.
Dear BLM Nevada State Director,
In 2023, Friends of Nevada Wilderness submitted a formal proposal for the Esmeralda/Fish Lake Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) asking for administrative protection of this 850,000-acre wild landscape.
Instead of protection, the NV Energy Greenlink West line and Esmeralda substation were approved in the center of the proposed ACEC. While the transmission line and substation were bad enough, the proposed Esmeralda Seven solar projects within the ACEC would forever change the wild character of this landscape that contains significant cultural, wildlife, botanical, natural and dark sky resources.
We are asking that none of the proposed Esmeralda 7 solar projects, including the NextEra Esmeralda Energy Center be approved in order to fully support the multiple Tribal efforts to document this ethnographic landscape through a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) process that is currently underway. We understand there are nationally significant cultural resources within the region of Esmeralda County where these solar projects are proposed. Archaeological research conducted as part of the TCP evaluation process shows these resources represent uninterrupted human occupation as far back in time as 14,000 years ago.
We would like the BLM to offer the Tribes more time and consideration to allow the normal process to take place so that the TCP can be formally recognized by the State Historic Preservation Officer and the Keeper of the Historic Register.
In this region there are also abundant wildlife and botanical resources. The area is home to the Great Basin Desert’s most genetically endemic population of desert bighorn sheep and a well-documented, unique and rare floral biodiversity. This landscape is ecologically intact where the Mojave and Great Basin Deserts connect. It is home to nearly the entire known population of pallid and dark kangaroo mice, Panamint kangaroo rats, at least two species of rattlesnake, an astonishing array of other reptile species, and a rich array of bird species. Research botanists call this area a floristic frontier comprising a remarkably unique variety and density of plant species including many which are rare or at-risk.
Thank you for your consideration of this request. We are open to continue conversations with your office and are available to offer any support needed in the protection of this important landscape.
cc:
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto
Senator Jacky Rosen
Representative Steven Horsford