As daylight rose over the parched and jagged Soda Mountains recently, an emaciated-looking bighorn ewe and two gaunt lambs hoofed carefully over volcanic outcroppings as they searched hungrily for increasingly rare clumps of greenery.
The request has sparked a surprising showdown between naturalists and advocates of emissions-free technology. Less than a year after announcing in 2015 that China would help build the rail line, Brightline West, then known as XpressWest, said the deal was off. The company said its decision was based, in part, on a federal requirement that high-speed trains must be manufactured in the U.S. to secure regulatory approvals.
Wildlife bridge advocates — led by the conservation association, the Wild Sheep Assn., the California Wilderness Assn., the Sierra Club of California and the hunting organization Safari Club International — are also facing a steep, rocky climb. The reason for that difficulty has to do with the sheer number of organizations involved in the rail effort, as well as issues concerning legal jurisdiction.
As envisioned by conservationists, the overcrossing would reconnect complex zoological social networks and habitats linked for centuries by dusty trails and volcanic outcroppings. It would also help ensure that bighorn populations do not become genetically isolated — or wind up as roadkill. Their effectiveness in the Mojave — a vast arid empire of wiry creosote, dry lakes, sand dunes, lava flows and snaggle-toothed peaks — remains to be seen.
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