The Bureau of Land Management has announced that $2.5 million dollars will be invested in studying the impacts that renewable energy development has on tribal ancestral lands in Southern California
The study by the BLM will identify resources of religious and cultural significance in order to avoid conflicts and better understand the impacts on tribal resources where renewable energy projects are being developed.
This area is known as The California Desert Conservation Area – designated in 1976 by Congress to recognize the importance of this area’s resources and the need for a comprehensive long-range conservation plan.
This landscape-level conservation plan for 10.8 million acres of public lands in the desert spans seven California counties – San Bernardino, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego. The counties work with the BLM, California Energy Commission, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage renewable energy development and preserve cultural sites alongside desert ecosystems.
The study is using the funds from the Biden-Harris inflation reduction act which BLM California State Director Karen Mourtisen says “will support our ability to deploy clean energy while protecting vital cultural resources in the California desert.”
Press Release at the BLM :https://www.blm.gov/press-release/blm-invests-25-million-cultural-landscape-study-and-predictive-modeling-california
