Updates
March 4, 2012: saving the tortoise is costly for solar energy companies. Well, duh. Tell that to Big Oil.
How this creature the size of a shoe box became the single biggest obstacle to industrial-scale solar development in the Mojave Desert is turning into a true story of the survival of the fittest.
At the $2.2-billion BrightSource Energy solar farm in the Ivanpah Valley, the tortoise brought construction to a standstill for three months when excavation work found far more animals than biologists expected.
BrightSource has spent $56 million so far to protect and relocate the tortoises, but even at that price, the work has met with unforeseen calamity: Animals crushed under vehicle tires, army ants attacking hatchlings in a makeshift nursery and one small tortoise carried off to an eagle nest, its embedded microchip pinging faintly as it receded.
The company made its first concession to the tortoise during planning, giving up about 10% of its expected power output in a redesign that reduced the project footprint by 12% and the number of 460-foot-tall "power towers" from seven to three.
BrightSource also agreed to install 50 miles of intricate fencing, at a cost of up to $50,000 per mile, designed to prevent relocated tortoises from climbing or burrowing back into harm's way.
The first survey of tortoises at the site found just 16. Based on biological calculations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued BrightSource a permit to move a maximum of 38 adults, and allowed a total of three accidental deaths per year during three years of construction. Any more in either category and the entire project would be shut down.
Original Post
Wow, wow, and wow!California is moving desert tortoises to make way for thousands of acres to be covered with solar panels.
This story points out the hypocrisy of environmentalists when it comes to energy.
However, unintended consequences suggest that this will be used as an argument for precedence when other industries are challenged on environmental grounds.
As you read the story, it just gets worse and worse.
The area will be called a "tortoise-free zone."
Tortoise translocation is still an experimental strategy with a dismal track record. In previous efforts, transported tortoises have shown a tendency to wander, sometimes for miles, often back toward the habitat in which they were found. The stress of handling and adapting to unfamiliar terrain renders the reptiles vulnerable to potentially lethal threats: predation by dogs, ravens and coyotes; respiratory disease, dehydration and being hit by vehicles.Let's see. They wander miles to get back to their homes, so moving them a half-mile away will help prevent that. Ooo-kay.
But project biologist and tortoise expert Mercy Vaughn was optimistic.
"Our goal is zero kill," Vaughn said. "I feel a lot more positive about this relocation project than any other I have been involved with or heard about. That is because these animals will be transported less than a half-mile away. So they will still be within their home range, or near it."
