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Dirt Roads" is a heartfelt blog dedicated to the vast, enigmatic beauty of the desert. It's a space where musings, meanderings, and crucial updates on issues affecting our beloved desert wildlands are shared with a community of like-minded individuals. My journey as a desert blogger began in 2009 with the Mojave Desert Blog. While "Dirt Roads" is a new venture, it is driven by the same deep-seated passion for the arid landscapes that captivate so many of us. For those who have followed my journey from the start, or for new readers eager to explore the archives, all previous blog posts can be accessed on the Archive page or at the original Blogger site. Just as "Dirt Roads" seeks to connect people with the beauty and ecological importance of desert wildlands, platforms like Bet9ja aim to connect users with opportunities in a completely different realm. For those interested, you can delve into the world of sports betting through the bet9ja mobile app https://bet9jaguide.ng/mobile-app/, where engagement and passion for sports come to life.
Is it parochial to defend wildlands and demand a renewable energy transition that minimizes impacts on wildlife and wildlands?
Nevada’s wildlands - battered by climate change, urban sprawl, grazing, and mining - face another fast growing threat as construction crews prepare to bulldoze nearly 16 square miles of intact desert habitat. Large-scale solar projects built on public lands threaten to further unravel the Mojave ecosystem and rapidly contribute to the decline of wildlife species. Nevada may have a chance to change this and ensure that our solution to the climate crisis does not worsen the extinction crisis.
A legal challenge against decisions signed by Trump's Interior Department provides an opportunity for the Biden administration to bring a science-based approach to the environmental review of the Gemini Solar project in Nevada. The project, as approved by the Trump administration, would mow down 11 square miles of important desert tortoise habitat and 50% of a rare plant's known population.
The Department of Interior earlier this month approved plans for a lithium mine that would pulverize nearly nine square miles of sagebrush steppe and grassland in the northwestern corner of Nevada.
The Biden/Harris administration has the monumental task of rapidly deploying renewable energy while also maintaining thriving ecosystems on our public lands. The epicenter of the friction between these two goals can be found in Nevada, where Biden’s Interior Department should immediately undertake prudent and science-based land management planning. They should look to the successful blueprint left behind for them by the Obama/Biden administration’s Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan in California.
A proposed national monument in southern Nevada would protect public lands of vital significance to Native American tribes. But the proposal omits key lands that - if developed - could jeopardize the cultural and ecological resources of the monument's landscape.
A mining company is hoping that we will look the other way as it drives a very rare plant to extinction for the sake of electric vehicle batteries. We have an opportunity to speak up this week to protect this plant. We must value sustainability in our transition to clean energy, and this lithium mine is anything but sustainable.
Nevada’s legislators have an opportunity to pursue a sustainable, equitable transition to clean energy. Making use of the spaces in our cities to deploy solar not only spares our wildlands from destruction, it also ensures that our communities reap the long-term economic benefits of of this transition.
Nevada’s Governor is asking the Trump administration to short circuit the environmental review of a solar project that will destroy an area of desert wildlands three times larger than the Las Vegas airport, or the equivalent of 148 Allegiant Stadiums. The Battle Born Solar project is just one of at least 45 square miles of solar project applications pending on public lands in southern Nevada. Meanwhile, the State of Nevada lags behind in its support for energy policies that promote distributed generation in our communities or that steer projects to already-disturbed lands.
Whatever you call it, it has long been a place on the way to somewhere else. But I will miss this place. This land in the shadow of two mountain ranges in Nevada. Each and every creosote bush and cactus that earned its right to exist here. They may not remain here for long, but they belong here.
What is desert advocate?
Desert Advocate is a project to promote the understanding, appreciation, and protection of our desert wildlands. If you found this website then you probably appreciate something about the open desert. Its wildlife, driving down a lonely dirt road, the smell of creosote as the rain approaches, interesting geology, or just the solitude you feel while watching the shadows slowly stretch over a desert valley at sunset. This is a work in progress, but it will always be a place to learn about the desert and how we can ensure that our favorite things about these wildlands are around for future generations to enjoy. You can find musings and news about the desert on the Dirt Roads blog, read about a pathway toward Sustainable, Equitable Energy that spare’s wildlands and benefits our communities, or check out a sampling of photos of our southwestern desert in Postcards.
About the blogger
I was raised in a small town in the western Mojave and spent much of my childhood exploring open desert around our neighborhood. My brother and I would ride bikes, build forts, catch (and release) lizards, and try to identify some of the interesting desert plants we came across. I was fortunate to have parents that supplied me with a library of Audubon field guides to fuel my curiosity about the desert and its inhabitants. Those acres of creosote bushes and Joshua trees in our neighborhood were eventually replaced by asphalt, concrete and more stucco-clad homes. Today, I do what I can to to build appreciation for the wonder and biodiversity of our desert wildlands and advocate for their protection. Luckily there are many desert defenders working across the southwest; I have and always will learn a lot from them, and I am very grateful for their passion and commitment.
desert postcards
Do you have a personal photo of your favorite place in the desert? A cool find or great sunrise? You can e-mail the photo (info@desertadvocate.org) and I'll post it here. Just let me to whom the credit goes and what is in the photo! You can catch some more desert images by following Desert Advocate on Instagram.