Threatened Tortoises Slow Down Desert Solar Project

Threatened desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii). 

Photo by Beth Jackson/US Fish and Wildlife Service

The building of the massive 5.6-square mile Ivanpah solar project in the Mojave Desert by BrightSource Energy has been suspended in the midst of construction while the U.S. Bureau of Land Management assesses whether more than 3,000 acres of tortoise habitat would be lost. It is believed that an estimated 600 endangered desert tortoises could die as a result of the solar complex and 160 tortoises might be captured and displaced. They didn't fare so well with the US Army's translocation a couple years ago.

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