Conservation groups have reached an agreement with First Solar, Inc. to provide additional conservation protections to wild lands and wildlife as part of construction of the California Flats Solar Project, a proposed 280-megawatt solar energy project in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties. It will affect 2,720 acres of important habitat for a number of rare and sensitive plants and animals. The project site is currently part of the 72,000-acre “Jack Ranch,” which is owned by the Hearst Corporation and currently operated as a cattle ranch.

The negotiations have resulted in better siting of the project to avoid harming a rare year-round stream and to preserve more than 1,000 acres of adjacent land for wildlife, with a $10.5 million fund to purchase additional land for habitat protection through an independent land trust. These conservation gains are in addition to the several thousand acres of habitat conservation required by Counties. The conservation groups in the agreement are Audubon California, California Native Plant Society, the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club.

“As California makes a rapid transition off climate-disrupting fossil fuels, it’s crucial to do so in a way that also protects wildlife and important wild places.” said Ileene Anderson with the Center for Biological Diversity.

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