We got up and headed for Vegas. Once we got past Lake Mead and entered Nevada, we looked at a solar power plant. It looked like a lake from the highway which was about 2 miles away. The plant has 180,000 mirros. These mirrors heat up pipes that have oil at a temperature of 400 degrees celsius. This hot oil decreases pressure and turns water into steam which turns the turbines to produce electricity.
The only problem this plant has on the environment is that it's situated in prime habitat for the desert tortious. The desert tortious is an endangered species. The city of Las Vegas has done a lot to help the tortious out by conserving lands containing its habitat. The city had originally planned on expanding development on the other side of the airport but had decided to preserve land instead to help attract outdoor tourists as well. As terrible for the environment that Vegas is with all the lights and using so much water in the middle of the desert, its nice to hear of them making efforts like this. The city also gives incentives for residents to find alternatives to grass lawns.
Before we made it to Vegas, we met with Amy who works as a biologist for fish and wildlife at Spring Mt. She surprised me when she explained that there were many endemic species to Spring Mt. Most of these species are plants with the only endemic fauna being a species of chipmunk. There are also a couple of rare species of butterfly. Just recently they have found evidence that may support early signs of speciation happening in one of the species of butterfly. You don't hear of this happening very often and it will be something really amazing to follow in the future. All this is happening just outside of Vegas.
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