Paying for Comforts with Wildlife

[Big Fin]

This Fresh Tracks weekly video expands on some popular topics that have been discussed here on Hunt Talk.

It revolves around one of my favorite Aldo Leopold lines … “Now we face the question whether a still higher 'standard of living' is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.”

When it comes to our comforts, including food and energy, there is no free lunch for wild places and wild things. We elect to pay with wildlife as our currency.


Paying for Comfy Lives with the Currency of Wildlife | Fresh Tracks Weekly (Ep. 81)

 

[Hammsolo]

I’ll be watching shortly. Thank you.

 

[Bambistew]

I blows my mind that we put solar farms in green field vs placing them over the top of parking lots. Insanity.

I had no idea how much solar there was in AZ until we did a road trip last winter. there was 1000s of acres of them in the middle of no where. I get that there are losses incurred when transporting electricity, but if the biggest consumers are cities, wouldn't it make sense to build them in cities?

 

[Hammsolo]

I blows my mind that we put solar farms in green field vs placing them over the top of parking lots. Insanity.

I had no idea how much solar there was in AZ until we did a road trip last winter. there was 1000s of acres of them in the middle of no where. I get that there are losses incurred when transporting electricity, but if the biggest consumers are cities, wouldn't it make sense to build them in cities?

It’s disgusting. Put them on private structures. Figure out a win-win. Maybe you get a discount for leasing your roof space to the power company?

 

[Hammsolo]

Feel free to edit this and send into the BLM. It may be crap, but I figure a quick letter is better than laziness. The email to send it to is BLM_NV_BMDO_P&EC@[email protected]

To Whom It May Concern,

I am not anti-green or anti-solar energy. I am not pro either. The type of energy production isn’t as important as how it is done. Solar energy releases carbon and other products when the materials are mined and manufactured. Installation of them produces more of the same. Once installed they are passive and don’t produce byproducts. All energy production costs resources and produces by products. There is no such thing as zero emission.

I am pro-systemic based thinking. We must analyze the system and all of its variables. What will we be changing and how will it effect the system and all of its other variables.

Solar energy has massive benefits; mainly passive energy production that is relatively low maintenance. The primary variable I am concerned with is where the panels are located. How is that location affected?

If we choose to place panels over public land it will be drastically affected. The panels block the sunlight, change precipitation absorption, and even affect wind patterns when installed on a large scale. These changes to the system affect other variables greatly. Plant life will be reduced due to the changes in water and sunlight, and seed dispersion will be affected. When the plants decrease the insect population will decrease. When the insect population decreases the primary consumers like mice will be reduced. When primary consumers are reduced secondary and tertiary consumers will be affected. All life will be affected.

We must consider this and its effects. I am pro-wildlife and wild lands. I am not anti-solar, but I am anti-solar on public lands. This land needs to be held in trust. We must consider the needs of wildlife and our future generations. Do not cover the land!

We must find a way to used land that has already been covered and manipulated. Place solar panels over interstates, and other roadways. Place them on buildings (public and private) that already cover lands.

Finally, we need energy, but how we attain it is up to us. Let’s do it in a way that protects wildlife and lands while utilizing already developed resources.

Thank you, Nick Hamm

 

[slatebuilder]

I blows my mind that we put solar farms in green field vs placing them over the top of parking lots. Insanity.

I had no idea how much solar there was in AZ until we did a road trip last winter. there was 1000s of acres of them in the middle of no where. I get that there are losses incurred when transporting electricity, but if the biggest consumers are cities, wouldn't it make sense to build them in cities?

Putting them in undeveloped ag fields, green, or other wild areas when there are already suitable places that are developed is poor use of resources in my opinion.

A developer wants to develop a 100 acre farm into a solar panel farm at the end of our township road, while only 3 miles away from the farm there is an abandoned mall and parking lot. Duh guys.

 

[seeth07]

Putting them in undeveloped ag fields, green, or other wild areas when there are already suitable places that are developed is poor use of resources in my opinion.

A developer wants to develop a 100 acre farm into a solar panel farm at the end of our township road, while only 3 miles away from the farm there is an abandoned mall and parking lot. Duh guys.

It is likely due to zoning and land values. That empty mall is zoned commercial and therefore it's acreage if for sale is very expensive compared to the ag field. It wouldn't be worth paying the cost for the commercial parcel to just have solar on it.

 

[slatebuilder]

It is likely due to zoning and land values. That empty mall is zoned commercial and therefore it's acreage if for sale is very expensive compared to the ag field. It wouldn't be worth paying the cost for the commercial parcel to just have solar on it.

Yes, the zoning and financial reason are very clear and understood.

 

[Bluffgruff]

Comments in favor of alternative C for "no action" and not authorizing the project.

Pertinent links:

EplanningUi

eplanning.blm.gov

BLM seeks public input for Esmerelda 7 Solar Projects in Nevada | Bureau of Land Management

The BLM invites the public to review and comment on the draft environmental impact statement and resource management plan amendment for the proposed Esmeralda 7 Solar Projects in Esmeralda County, Nevada

www.blm.gov

Federal Register :: Request Access

 

[Big Fin]

And if you want to leave comments, it's a bit more cumbersome than normal. Link here - https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2020804/570

 

[R.K.]

Thanks for the heads up. Comment submitted.

 

[PRO MO]

i don't understand why all solar panels aren't built above interstates, parking lots, and commercial buildings.

 

[Green Hunter]

i don't understand why all solar panels aren't built above interstates, parking lots, and commercial buildings.

1000% but like others said... in the end it's money. BLM land is cheap compared to commercial-zoned land. Could you imagine how great it would be if panels were over parking lots, you wouldn't have to clean snow or worry as much about rain coming down on you! There is SO much flat roof areas around with nothing on them, I would rather see those developed with panels than BLM or farm fields

 

[Ben Lamb]

1000% but like others said... in the end it's money. BLM land is cheap compared to commercial-zoned land. Could you imagine how great it would be if panels were over parking lots, you wouldn't have to clean snow or worry as much about rain coming down on you! There is SO much flat roof areas around with nothing on them, I would rather see those developed with panels than BLM or farm fields

Connection to transmission lines, economies of scale and siting issues. Then you've got the issue of infrastructure spread out across entire towns, etc rather than concentrated in one field (maintenance, etc). I'd like to see better standards for new builds to integrate sustainable energy on a small scale where each residence is a net producer of energy with the excess fed back into a localized grid to provide spot power when needed. Then you can extend the current grant programs and tax incentives for folks to add home-scaled solar as well.

TX shut itself off from the national grid, and now rolling brown outs, black outs and loss of power are normal. A nationalized grid is a national security issue just as much a "I need AC in Houston in July" issue. But, local redundancies and the ability to create mini-grids based on geographic location could be a huge load off of the existing power plants and transmission capabilities. The current administration has been pushing this for a while now, with the infrastructure bill and with the grid modernization stuff: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...te-initiative-to-bolster-americas-power-grid/

You won't trade public land for private property development. The BLM is legislatively mandated for multiple use. If you don't want large, industrial-scale development on public land you have to change the multitude of laws that mandate it.

 

[Hammsolo]

It is likely due to zoning and land values. That empty mall is zoned commercial and therefore it's acreage if for sale is very expensive compared to the ag field. It wouldn't be worth paying the cost for the commercial parcel to just have solar on it.

Time for some forward thinking on zoning laws.

 

[seeth07]

Time for some forward thinking on zoning laws.

Not sure how that helps anything? The price/acre of commercially zoned land is the fact that it is often a hard, long and drawn out process to get land zoned by the township to commercial. This is especially true if it is land on the outskirts of a town and it would be removing agricultural/natural areas from the township and replacing them with a building/parking lot. The owner of that land has value associated with that process and why the price is more.

 

[Hammsolo]

Connection to transmission lines, economies of scale and siting issues. Then you've got the issue of infrastructure spread out across entire towns, etc rather than concentrated in one field (maintenance, etc). I'd like to see better standards for new builds to integrate sustainable energy on a small scale where each residence is a net producer of energy with the excess fed back into a localized grid to provide spot power when needed. Then you can extend the current grant programs and tax incentives for folks to add home-scaled solar as well.

TX shut itself off from the national grid, and now rolling brown outs, black outs and loss of power are normal. A nationalized grid is a national security issue just as much a "I need AC in Houston in July" issue. But, local redundancies and the ability to create mini-grids based on geographic location could be a huge load off of the existing power plants and transmission capabilities. The current administration has been pushing this for a while now, with the infrastructure bill and with the grid modernization stuff: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing...te-initiative-to-bolster-americas-power-grid/

You won't trade public land for private property development. The BLM is legislatively mandated for multiple use. If you don't want large, industrial-scale development on public land you have to change the multitude of laws that mandate it.

It’s time for change. In the words of one of my favorite retired Seahawks, Angry Doug Baldwin, “Change is inevitable, change will always happen, but you have to apply direction to change, and that's when it's progress.”

 

[Hammsolo]

Not sure how that helps anything? The price/acre of commercially zoned land is the fact that it is often a hard, long and drawn out process to get land zoned by the township to commercial. This is especially true if it is land on the outskirts of a town and it would be removing agricultural/natural areas from the township and replacing them with a building/parking lot. The owner of that land has value associated with that process and why the price is more.

I left the comment airy on purpose. If zoning is the problem, what is the solution? Is it changing the law? Isn’t it finding strategies to work around the laws. It is was it is leaves things as they are. I don’t have the answers, but I’m willing to listen and think. With work the answers will come. Without work the issue will persist.

 

[seeth07]

I left the comment airy on purpose. If zoning is the problem, what is the solution? Is it changing the law? Isn’t it finding strategies to work around the laws. It is was it is leaves things as they are. I don’t have the answers, but I’m willing to listen and think. With work the answers will come. Without work the issue will persist.

The owner of that piece of real estate logically isn't going to accept less value for his commercially zoned property so it would mean having enough value in solar to make it worthy of putting on the property. If we are thinking about government and more specifically tax paying dollars paying for these projects (like they are here in WI - not sure if its the same elsewhere) the tax payers would like to know they are at least getting the best bang for their buck. It is a hard sell when thinking about how you can either buy the commercial property and place half as many solar panels on it or for the same cost as placing double the amount of solar panels on the ag land/grassland down the road.

 

[buckbull]

I blows my mind that we put solar farms in green field vs placing them over the top of parking lots. Insanity.

I had no idea how much solar there was in AZ until we did a road trip last winter. there was 1000s of acres of them in the middle of no where. I get that there are losses incurred when transporting electricity, but if the biggest consumers are cities, wouldn't it make sense to build them in cities?

There is a huge wind and solar farm in central Illinois right in the middle of some of the most productive farm ground in the world. 200 bushels an acre corn is a slam dunk. Yet, that ground lost out to wind and solar.