Soda Lake, Temblor Range in Background.
The BLM describe the Carrizo as:
“an area by-passed by time.
“an area with more endangered and protected species than any where else in the State of California”
Soda Lake, its centerpiece, is a glistening bed of white salt, set within a vast open grassland, rimmed by mountains.
The plain is home to diverse communities of wildlife and plant species, and is an area culturally important to Native Americans.
It is traversed by the San Andreas fault, which has carved valleys, created and moved mountains, and yet close up, is
Wallace Creek/San Andreas Fault .
seen in a subtle alignment of ridges, ravines and normally dry ponds.”
For more information about the area:
- Carrizo Plains National Monument
- Photos of the Carrizo Plain on Flickr
Pronghorn Antelope grazing.
For more information about the impacts of the solar projects on the Carrizo:
- The Sierra Club’s Santa Lucia Chapter Carrizo page
- Center for Biological Diversity reports on the plan
- Carrizo Commons Carrizo Commons
- The Solar Lawsuits
- Both solar plants approved
- “And so the deserts, perhaps the landscape always most resistant to permanent human conquest, are to be colonized by vast ‘solar arrays,’ glass and steel and aluminum the size of small countries”. PLEASE READ THIS LINK.