Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: New York
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Terrestrial solar facility design and management for conservation outcomes: The Desert Southwest of the United States provides a globally premier case study of interactions between desert ecosystems and utility-scale solar facilities, and a proving ground for natural resource management in concert with energy development on federal land. Applied research that elucidates how solar energy development practices, including siting, site preparation, operations and maintenance, and eventually decommissioning, affect desert ecosystems can influence on the ground conservation and management of geodiversity and biodiversity and help shape conservation-enabling solar facility design. In partnership with the Bureau of Land Management, we are determining interactions among a large-scale, photovoltaic solar facility (Yellow Pine; 500 MW) and geodiversity, plants, and pollinators in the northern Mojave Desert, Nevada, USA. Our research will inform solar energy development decisions that reduce negative impacts of solar energy development on desert ecosystems and that promote ecosystem services from deserts.