Renewable energy generation sites may encroach on wildlife habitats

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — You can tell a lot about the health of an area’s animal population by looking at its droppings, said Jaime Rudd, director of the California State Universities Endangered Species Recovery Program.

What you need to know

A new study looked at how wildlife habitats are changing under the influence of climate change and the loss of new habitats due to renewable energy production

Study finds that the endangered San Joaquin Kit Fox will lose an additional 3.8% of habitat on top of projected habitat declines due to climate change

The state’s goal is to become carbon neutral by 2045, and a big part of helping in that process is renewable energy

Renewable energy facilities, such as solar and wind farms, cover large areas

Rudd said this is extremely important because of the state’s unique biodiversity, especially in the San Joaquin Valley.

“Most of the animals in the San Joaquin Valley are endangered and endemic,” Rudd said. “They can’t be found anywhere else on Earth except here in the California Valley.”

The area is home to the state’s only federally listed endangered species, the San Joaquin Kit Fox.

Rudd and her team found that fox numbers closely matched the availability of their main prey, kangaroo rats.

“It really depends on these populations and how they fluctuate and grow and decline, which is often linked to climate,” she said.

Climate impacts on endangered species like the San Joaquin kit fox and some of the ways we fight climate change – the subject of a newly published study co-authored by Uzma Ashraf, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Davis Wild Energy Center.

A study focusing on the change in wildlife habitats due to climate change and the loss of new habitats due to renewable energy production.

“It’s a double challenge for biodiversity,” Ashraf said. “One of them is due to climate change. Another is that we are introducing renewable energy into their habitat.”

A large part of the state’s climate goals relies on using renewable energy such as wind and solar power to become carbon neutral by 2045.

But these kinds of powers take up large amounts of land.

In the study, Ashraf said it used computer modeling, superimposing a changing range of fox sets on existing and future renewable energy sites. It said it determined that in addition to the projected decline due to climate change, they would lose an additional 3.8% of habitat.

“We believe we should increase the use of renewable energy, but at the same time we should take proactive measures,” Ashraf said. “To create wildlife crossings or execute restoration plans, we can avoid .”

The example Ashraf gave regarding the need for better planning of a renewable energy facility.

Planned solar farm in Mojave Desert Ashraf said it could potentially take away key habitat for western Joshua trees.

Rudd said that although San Joaquin Kit foxes have lost much of their habitat, they have adapted to some extent to their new environment.

“Interestingly, we have a really large urban population of cat foxes in the city of Bakersfield,” Rudd said.

And although this adaptation is positive.

Both Rudd and Ashraf agree and hope their conservation work will be used by those planning important renewable energy sites to better address key habitats.