Top CA natural resources official blasts idea to reopen talks on desert conservation

California Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird issued a statement today regarding the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. Like Audubon California, he thinks it's a perfect lousy idea to reopen negotiations on the landmark conservation deal.:

“The 2016 Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan is the result of over eight years of collaborative effort and public participation involving the California Energy Commission, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as local governments, renewable energy companies, environmental groups, businesses, and citizens.  Hundreds of meetings, thousands of public comments, and deep commitment of public agencies generated a Plan that provides for renewable energy production from public lands while also protecting the incredibly rich biological, cultural, recreational, and many other values of the California desert.

The Plan itself allows for modifications and course corrections, and due to the combined input, resulted in zero lawsuits.  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.  Instead, BLM should work proactively with the state, local governments, tribal leadership, and other stakeholders to implement the plan effectively and resolve issues with implementation as they arise.”

That other California raven

Fascinating study shows that California used to have a unique form of raven, but that it has long been bred out of existence. It lives on, however, in the DNA of our Common Ravens.

Study shows that sea level rise threatens West Coast marshes

A new study shows that sea-level rise driven by climate change could swallow up many of the Pacific Coast's most important marshes in the next hundred years. But researchers say there's still time to do something about it. Audubon California is working hard to protect many of these areas, supporting Measure AA in the San Francisco Bay and restoring vital marshes in Sonoma Creek.

America's most important bird protection law is under attack

Audubon President David Yarnold writes in Newsweek about the Trump Administration's attack on the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

"The Trump administration and some members of Congress are ready to give oil and gas companies and other industries a free pass to kill birds with impunity by gutting the nation’s most effective bird protection law—a law that has been on the books for a century.

It is the law that saved some of America’s most beautiful and beloved birds from mass slaughter by a fashion industry that prized their plumes for hats and clothing in the early 1900s. At one point, an ounce of egret feathers was worth more than an ounce of gold.

Today’s industrial threat to birds isn’t the trade in fancy feathers, but rather oil pits, gas flares from drilling, oil spills, power lines, communication towers, improperly sited wind turbines and solar arrays and other deadly, but avoidable hazards."

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