Wilderness Society wants Utah solar sites targeted to low-impact areas

The Wilderness Society issued a report Monday praising federal land managers for identifying low-impact areas for solar-energy development but imploring the government to restrict initial public-lands developments to those areas. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will release a draftenvironmental study Friday of solar options for public lands in the Southwest, including Utah. Wilderness Society renewable-energy coordinator Alex Daue said the group prefers that development be concentrated in areas already identified by the BLM as low impact, such as west desert sites around Milford. Opening all other unrestricted BLM lands for development applications, he warned, could lead to new roads, power lines and other intrusions into sensitive areas...more

New roads means no wilderness, which is what they are really concerned about.