BLM Solar Plan Affects Winter Range – COMMENT NOW!
By Brandon Mason
You have an opportunity to comment on an important landscape-scale management plan on BLM lands!
According to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), “In the draft, the BLM is proposing to make 22 million acres available for potential development. While most of the proposed acres do not conflict with priority big game habitat, the preferred alternative would allow for solar development on 4 million acres of big game winter range and 1.8 million acres of big game migration corridors, including those of renowned mule deer herds such as the Kaibab herd in northern Arizona (map below), the Smokey-Bennett zone in Idaho, the Wyoming Range herd, and the Paunsaugunt herd in Utah (also shown in map).”
Anyone who has seen a solar field knows the HUGE impact it has on the landscape. I’m all for exploring energy sources, but not at the expense of our wildlife resources that are already on their heels out West with urban sprawl, increased road networks, etc.
CLICK HERE to comment on the proposed BLM plan. Comment period closes in less than a week (this blog was written 4/10/2024).
