The Crescent Peak Wind Project is planned for the border of the Mojave National Preserve and Castle Mountains National Monument. Take action now.
The 32,000 acre Crescent Peak Wind Project is undergoing a scoping period for public comment. The enormous project is planned for the border of the Mojave National Preserve and the newly designated Castle Mountains National Monument, which also faces threats from mining.
Basin and Range Watch has written a petition to the BLM to nominate public lands in the area for status as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC).
"The Castle Mountains contain a unique arid grassland community in both California and Nevada. This area contains the only stands of diverse C4 perennial grasslands west of the Colorado River, subtropical grasslands that are normally found in the Sonoran Desert uplands in Arizona and Mexico. Grass species common in this plant community flower and seed during the warm seasons of summer and fall, especially after strong monsoon rainfall events. Normally found in the Sonoran Region, and even as far east as the Great Plains, grasses such as Black grama (Boutelua eriopoda), Blue grama (B. gracilis), Sideoats grama (B. curtipendula), are found in this corner of the Mojave Desert uplands, ranging into a small area of adjacent California in the Castle Mountains National Monument and Mojave National Preserve. This arid summer monsoon grassland community grades below into diverse creosote scrub (Larrea tridentata) and above into Blackbrush scrub (Coleogyne ramosissima) and one of the world’s largest Joshua tree woodlands (Yucca brevifolia), providing a wide diversity of habitats for reptiles, birds, and mammals."
Learn more about the proposed wind project and the ACEC proposal at Basin and Range Watch. This page has a draft letter to the BLM to adapt for public comment, as well as a link to the ACEC nomination: http://basinandrangewatch.org/Castle-Pk-wind.html
Read more on the proposal: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/castle-mountains-nevada-bioblitz
Read the Federal Register notice: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-03-15/html/2018-05273.htm
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