One hundred years. That’s how long many of California’s Joshua trees have successfully battled against disease, insects, weather, and human encroachment. Now, that battle is coming to an end.
A 2,300-acre project by Avantus is slated to cut down thousands of Joshua trees on privately owned land in Kern County, California, so that solar panels can be installed in their place to generate electricity for about 180,000 homes.
There are about 4,700 Joshua trees on the site, and about 500 of those trees stand at least 16 feet tall. The company plans to cut down about 3,500 of them.
A statement on their website reads: “Avantus is working to preserve native Mojave plants like Joshua Trees while also preserving California’s ability to achieve its clean energy goals – and the economic and climate benefits that come with them. While trees will be impacted during project construction, vastly more Joshua Trees are being threatened by climate change caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions, which the Aratina solar project directly addresses.”
In 2023, California lawmakers passed the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, which prohibits the killing of these trees without a permit. However, the Aratina project received state approval prior to both the enactment of the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act and the designation of the Joshua tree as a candidate for protection under the state’s Endangered Species Act.
The project has residents in the affected Boron and Desert Lake communities upset. Along with disgust about the destruction of Joshua trees, residents worry about the predictable dust and noise generated by the massive project, as well as the habitat destruction of the desert tortoise, an endangered species.
Folks upset by the project wonder about the head-scratching decision to clear this section of the Mojave Desert environment in order to save the environment with solar energy.
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##RVT1160b
Be green unless it is inconvenient…
sounds a lot like the celebs who preach to the unwashed masses about carbon footprints and then fly off in their private jets.
HMMM, did the planners of this solar farm run out of desert acreage that doesn’t have these endangered trees currently occupying the area? There is so little scrub desert real estate available in the south west.
Interesting to see environmentalists having to wrestle with trade-offs. It’s much easier when you only have to criticize the other guys. Now when you have to make a real choice, you see how hard it can be.
Who are the F-ing idiots who are allowing this to move forward ??
Don’t hold back, Bill. (Sorry.) I’ve just added a link at the bottom of the post for the Aratina website’s answers to FAQs. Yeah, I don’t like this either. Have a good afternoon/evening. 🙂 –Diane
I’ll check it out, thanks 👍
You’re welcome, Bill. (It answers a lot of questions, but I still don’t like it. Just sayin’.☹️) Have a good night. 😀 –Diane
Checked it out and there’s still more questions than answers.
I don’t want to get into the politics of this decision here though. I get myself in enough trouble with my opinions as it is sometimes…🤔 🫢 🫣
Well, of course there are more questions than answers, Bill. Isn’t that how everything works (or doesn’t work) these days?🙄 Take care. 😀 –Diane
It’s definitely a political decision, worth more discussion. Might make for a good reader’s poll question..
Yeah, and you know how we love to get into political “discussions” here, Bill. I doubt that the powers that be would want to run that topic as a poll question, but thank you for the suggestion.👍 Have a great day. 😀 –Diane
This is distressing. I wish they had another site.
This is happening throughout the Mojave desert. The Antelope Valley has seen these solar farms come in and bulldoze acres of Joshua trees. They also bulldoze the California Poppies. And we have a endangered broughing owl that nest underground that gets killed as well. There’s almost nowhere they can build these solar farms that won’t damage some part of the ecosystem.
Thank you, Gail! 🙂 Interesting development, huh? Funny how life can be so messy. How can environmentalists be on both sides of this deal? Some for solar to address global warming and some for trees and turtles. How will this play out? Thanks for the notification, Gail! 🙂 Have a great week and safe travels! 🙂
Neal, you’re too nice a guy to slam for your ‘global warming’ comment…
Thanks, Matt! 🙂 As to global warming, well, that is an environmentalist’s issue and I don’t think of myself as one. Have a great weekend and safe travels! 🙂
Thanks for the info Gail! Isn’t ironic that we have to destroy the planet to save it! Lol.
They (environmentalist) don’t care about the millions of acres of land all over the world being lost to dig minerals to make batteries, not to mention the slave child labor. Why should they care about some trees. It’s all about money and most importantly, power.
So many thoughts.
1 – it’s private land. They should have rights on it.
2 – nuclear is the best bang for the buck & clean energy. Why are we not investing a ton here? This would help prevent this & reduce the need for fossil fuels.
3 – the same people that dislike this often love fossil. It’s just hate on change. We built a pipeline near me that had way more environmental damage.
#gonuclear
So true Dave. The fear of nuclear is largely based on events that happened 40-50 years ago. The technology now is lights years better in terms of safety and yet it is virtually off the table in terms of new energy builds.
Correct, it’s private land. If you don’t like what the owner is going to do with their private land, get a group together to pool funds and buy the land. Then you can enjoy your investment in desert land by watching the trees.
Poses an interesting dilemma for the “environmentalists”, huh? I wonder if there is widespread wailing, hair pulling, and gnashing of teeth in that community?
Not to mention the VISUAL DESTRUCTION of that beautiful area
In 20 years or so, we’ll need another trillion-dollar superfund program to clear the landscape of these things.
more like 8 years
180,000 homes, hmmmm hey how about putting solar systems on those homes instead of destroying an ecosystem for profit, oh wait, profit the key to this all!