Film by Justin McAffee, featuring Basin and Range Watch biologists
This is the very beginning of Yellow Pine Solar. The big fence is not up yet, only the “tortoise exclusion fence” and the dirt road around the perimeter. Laura Cunningham, biologist from Basin and Range Watch, discusses desert pavement, carbon sequestration, the ancient ecosystem, and oncoming dust hazard. Visit www.basinandrangewatch.org
Film by Justin McAffee, featuring Mojave Green and drone footage of ruined ecosystem at Yellow Pine.
Spring is the time when Desert Tortoises leave their burrows to stretch their legs and migrate around. This tortoise is walking along the fence of Yellow Pine, on land proposed for the Purple Sage (formerly called Golden Currant) solar project. This is April, 2024.
The second desert tortoise spotted in one morning on land proposed for the Purple Sage solar project (previously known as Golden Currant) outside the Yellow Pine Solar facility. The BLM wants to permit 45 square miles of destruction here…the entire valley between Tecopa Road and Pahrump. This was filmed April, 2024. Notice how green the desert flora is after our year of rain.
The Yellow Pine site after it has been cleared. The natural desert pavement is gone and we are left with “poof dirt.” The soils are no longer sequestering carbon.
Leveling the cleared land at the Yellow Pine Solar site. Once the 4.5 mile site is cleared, they will spray Roundup and other herbicides year-round to control for weeds.
Heavy equipment at the entrance to Yellow Pine solar, at the beginning of construction (destruction) in January, 2022.
Ancient Mojave Yucca and in-tact desert pavement outside the Yellow Pine fence, compared to the wasteland that’s been created inside.
This machine gives an initial run-over. It goes over Mojave yucca and creosote, pulling them from the ground.
Nextera Energy bought water rights from the Wolfenstein estate in Pahrump. The groundwater in the aquifer beneath the Pahrump valley is completely over-allocated, meaning more water rights exist than actual water. Ten or so other solar developers are also planning to buy groundwater rights from the Wolfenstein estate in the Pahrump valley, which will further jeopardize the future health of this community. Solar projects here use about 350,000,000 gallons of water during the first year of construction.
Construction of Yellow Pine Solar in winter, 2022
Dust hazard on the cleared site of Yellow Pine. Spring, 2022.
Drilling thousands of holes for solar panel pole mounts across the 4.5 square mile (3000 acre) Yellow Pine site.