In 2016, the Bureau of Land Management, working with numerous conservation and recreation organizations, finalized the Desert Renewable Conservation Plan, an eight-year plan that set aside millions of acres for conservation and recreation, as well as for renewable energy. Managing editor Tami Roleff says the Trump administration released amendments Wednesday that will increase the land available for energy and reduce the acreage available for conservation and recreation…
In the last week of the Trump administration, the Bureau of Land Management is proposing big changes to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. The BLM is now proposing to allow activities like energy development, mining and grazing on more than one million additional acres. Jeff Aardahl with the group Defenders of Wildlife says the habitat protections in the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan are crucial to stopping the desert tortoise’s slide toward extinction.
“The desert tortoise in California is in bad shape; its populations are crashing. So, reducing those areas would be another blow to its potential for recovery.”
The BLM also proposes slashing about four million acres from the plan that are currently designated as areas of critical environmental concern or California Desert National Conservation Lands. The feds claim these changes are necessary to meet California’s renewable-energy targets.
Aardahl says he suspects the new proposal will be dead on arrival once the Biden administration takes over.
“There’s nothing that requires BLM to do this – it’s strictly discretionary on their part. And so, a new administration would have the full discretion to just simply announce to the public that it is terminating the previous proposal to amend the plan.”
The public now has 90 days to comment on the proposed changes to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan.
FROM THE BLM:
The Bureau of Land Management has released a draft environmental impact statement and plan amendment for the three plans that underlie the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP). The public comment period will end on April 15, 2021.
The BLM is proposing targeted amendments to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan, the Bakersfield Resource Management Plan, and the Bishop Resource Management Plan. These amendments are intended to promote economic growth, support broadband infrastructure development, increase public access, and allow for greater management flexibility in order to meet our nation’s energy needs.
“It does not make sense that every renewable energy project on public lands in California would likely require a resource plan amendment to simply move forward,” said Deputy Secretary Kate MacGregor. “The previous plan made only 4% of 10.8 million acres managed by the BLM available as renewable energy development focus areas. This proposal will add over 800,000 acres for renewable energy development and create a more measured approach to foster responsible off-highway vehicle recreation, rural broadband, and other important multiple-use projects – including those needed to meet California’s renewable energy mandates.”
“As trusted forms of energy production are eliminated in California, large expanses of desert landscape will be needed to bring alternatives online to avoid blackouts and new constraints on the grid,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Casey Hammond. “This plan will make more federal land available for renewable energy projects in hopes of balancing uses as well as keeping the lights on and the air conditioning blowing.”
“The BLM is committed to the responsible management of public lands in California for variety of uses, from energy development to conservation and recreation,” said BLM California State Director Karen Mouritsen. “The proposed amendment will provide better opportunities to foster economic growth by supporting the development of renewable energy sources and the expansion of broadband access in California’s vast deserts, while maintaining our shared conservation stewardship for important species and habitats.”
The targeted amendments provide flexibility and streamlining for siting renewable energy development within designated Development Focus Areas in an effort to continue to assist the state in their mandate of 60 percent energy from wind or solar by 2030. In addition, the amendments increase opportunities for multiple use within the planning area, including for broadband infrastructure, mining and minerals development, rights-of-way, rangeland and livestock grazing, recreation and public access. In order to achieve these goals, while at the same time continuing to ensure the conservation of resources and public uses in the southern California desert, the BLM carefully evaluated the existing Conservation and Management Actions (CMA) and conservation allocations in the planning area. As a result of this evaluation the BLM is proposing to modify the CMAs that overly restrict access to public lands, do not conform with current policy, or have been identified as inappropriate at a plan level.
In addition to the CMA changes, the BLM is also proposing modifications to the conservation allocations within the planning area, specifically Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) and California Desert National Conservation Lands. ACEC modifications are intended to simplify management through the reduction of overlapping designations where appropriate (e.g. wilderness), and ensure the ACEC designation is necessary for the management of a resource. Careful consideration in the ACEC evaluation was provided for federally and state-listed species as well as areas of cultural importance.
The BLM is proposing modifications to the California Desert National Conservation Lands (CDNCL). Specifically, the BLM has reevaluated the existing CDNCL to ensure (1) they contain nationally significant landscapes with ecological, cultural, and scientific values, and (2) that the BLM can manage for them. The proposed amendment would better align the CDNCL with other nationally significant landscapes, as identified in the March 30, 2009, the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009, through the creation of stand-alone units that meet criteria rather than an eco-regional approach. This approach would provide for a more readily identifiable conservation area that is intended to better facilitate public engagement and unit management.
In February 2018, the BLM initiated public scoping and requested comments that would help set the parameters, or scope, of the review of the three plans. In particular, the BLM requested comments on how land designations identified in the plan might affect development of solar, wind or other renewable energy resources. The BLM received more than 850 unique written submissions during public scoping; approximately 450 were substantive.
The draft EIS and draft plan amendment can be viewed and comments submitted on the BLM website: https://go.usa.gov/x7hdj. Comments may also be submitted by mail: BLM-CA Desert Plan Amendment, 2800 Cottage Way, Rm W-1623, Sacramento, CA 95825.
The BLM will hold public meetings during the public comment period. Announcements about these meetings will be made by news releases to the media and posting on the project website listed above.
Before including an address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying information in any comments, please bear in mind that an entire comment — including personal identifying information — may be made publicly available at any time. Requests to withhold personal identifying information from public review can be submitted, but the BLM cannot guarantee that it will be able to do so.
RESPONSE FROM CONSERVATION ORGANIZATIONS ABOUT THE PROPOSED CHANGES:
- Reducing the California Desert National Conservation Lands by approximately 2.2 million acres. The California Desert National Conservation Lands are public lands scattered throughout California’s southeastern corner and include a variety of landscapes including rocky peaks, saltscrub lowlands and rich riparian corridors. These lands offer nationally significant places for endless exploration and protect critical wildlife habitat.
- Reducing the number of Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs) from 129 to 97 and thus reducing the acreage of the ACECs by approximately 1.8 million acres, in many cases to further extractive interests. ACECs are entitled to special management to help protect their important and fragile historical, cultural, and scenic values, or wildlife or other natural resources.
- Modifying or eliminating 68 Conservation Management Actions (CMAs), which would allow for greater impacts on the California Desert National Conservation Lands as well as allow energy development in Special Recreation Management Areas (SRMAs). SRMAs are intended to offer recreational opportunities, such as creating trailhead areas for hikers, mountain bikers, or off-road vehicle users.
Advocates note that this move to amend the DRECP – less than a week before the Inauguration – is an attempt to hamper the new Administration’s climate change agenda. The DRECP is an important building block in California’s effort to achieve its clean energy goals under SB 100. It is also a blueprint for planning for climate, conservation and renewable energy throughout the nation.
In fact, the State of California has said previously that “Reopening the plan is a waste of time and resources that will result in uncertainty, delay, and litigation. Reopening will stall renewable energy projects on public lands and impose major new costs on stakeholders without benefit.”
During the eight year process of developing the DRECP, the Bureau of Land Management and the State of California undertook an extensive effort to build consensus and gather public input. They reviewed thousands of public comments and held dozens of public meetings.
As a result, the DRECP was developed in collaboration with more than 50 stakeholder groups representing the wide diversity of California Desert users including Tribes, the military, off-road vehicle users and other recreationists, developers, utilities, and conservationists.
This process is rightly hailed as a fair compromise and a breakthrough for state and federal collaboration in land use planning. The DRECP has not been challenged legally – a very rare occurrence with land use plans of this scale.
“Stakeholders worked tirelessly and collaboratively to craft the DRECP, a process which took input on Native American culture, recreation, and historic values into account,” said Michael J. Madrigal, President of the Native American Land Conservancy. “Reopening the DRECP puts precious and important cultural sites in the California Desert risk. And doing so at a time when our community is grappling with the pandemic is insulting, to say the least.”
Now advocates are looking to the incoming Biden Administration to officially cancel the DRECP plan amendment and instead focus on collaborating with the state and other stakeholders to reach the full promise of the DRECP.
“The Trump Administration’s attempted dismantling of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan harms military security, training and veterans,” said Allison Bailey, Organizing and Membership Director, Vet Voice Foundation. “The California desert is home to five military installations which collectively add almost 4.5 billion dollars each year to our local economy. Desert military installations rely on public lands, including the conservation lands designated under the DRECP to protect against development projects that would impact military airspace, recreational activities that stray onto installations and the overuse of water resources that are necessary for military operations. Service men, women and veterans use the lands protected under the DRECP to recreate and recharge.”
“Trump’s attack on the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan is more than an attack on nature, it is also an attack on our communities,” said Shanna Edberg, Director of Conservation Programs, Hispanic Access Foundation. “According to a recent report from Hispanic Access Foundation, 67 percent of Latinos in the U.S. live in “nature deprived” areas, or areas with limited access to the outdoors. For many Latino communities in Southern California, the protected lands of the California desert provide our best – and perhaps only – access to nature, now and in the future. Removing conservation protections and opening lands identified for recreation and access under the DRECP for development takes away the availability of these areas for already underserved communities, and diminishes the public health, educational, economic, and climate resilience benefits where they are most needed.”
