Meet Max: Desert Tortoise Biologist

Today we are launching the first segment of a series of videos called "Ivanpah Portraits," designed to showcase the great work happening at Ivanpah through the eyes of the talented men and woman who are working on the project. Segment one, "Meet Max," focuses on the incredible work that biologists are undertaking to protect and care for desert tortoise found on the site. We hope that you enjoy meeting Max and the other workers who are making Ivanpah a model renewable energy project.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• BrightSource
• Tortoise
• Solar
• Environment
• Biology
• Biologist
• Mojave
• Desert
• Energy

[marcoshxc]

@bdmueller That makes no fucking sense. Read what you just said.

[splob1]

Wilderness; public land (!) grabbed; given away cheap by the Fed so another industry can do irreversible damage to our country. The whole thing is anything but 'green'. Local solar and solar on already 'disturbed' land is the way to go.

[Lhogue46]

"The new analysis by Fish and Wildlife also released Friday estimated that between 405 and 1,136 tortoises will die or be injured from construction activity or loss of habitat." The Press-Enterprise

[dam1en07]

Basin and Range Watch is a great organization that has been monitoring and raising awareness of the situation at the Ivanpah site. If anyone wants more information do a search for " basin and range watch" as youtube will not let me post links to their site. I'm all for green energy, but if its going to do more harm than good, who benefits? Anthropocentrism is going to kill our planet.

[dam1en07]

Its a shame that biologists in this day and age are being bought off by companies. Our job is to understand the creatures and the biomes that make up Earth We are not meant to be aiding in their destruction.

[bdmueller]

"Intact desert ecosystems should not be sacrificed for energy, ever." What if it means a cleaner habitat for other animals?

Everything has trade-offs, and although the decisions are difficult, someone has to make them.

[cealandgabe]

Solar belongs in the VAST built environment at the point of use, first. Then on the millions of EPA identified contaminated lands we're already destroyed. Intact desert ecosystems should not be sacrificed for energy, ever. We have faster, cheaper, smarter, greener alternatives. Shame on DOE.

[drewjewbe]

I'm glad to see real biologist point of view on the tortoise "issue." A lot of people that are not experts seem to be very opinionated on the issue. The truth is there, as large as the desert is, there aren't many sites as suited to solar thermal as Ivanpah is (close to population, transmission lines, high solar density, etc.). The technology at Ivanpah is groundbreaking and revolutionary and these are the types of projects we need for a sustainable future.

[cealandgabe]

Lhogue is right. The general consensus among the biologists (not being paid by BrightSource) is that, of the estimated 3,000 tortoises to be affected, the vast majority will die.

[Lhogue46]

Max may be doing his best to protect the tortoises, but what we don't hear is that many, maybe dozens or hundreds, of baby tortoises couldn't be relocated and were probably crushed by the grading at this site. Also, when these older captured tortoises are released into the wild, they only have a 50% survival rate. This kind of project should be on already-destroyed land, which the desert has plenty of, not on high quality habitat.