Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Monarch Butterfly Complicates High-Speed Rail Work in Bakersfield
News
By News
Published 4 years ago on
February 28, 2021

Share

[aggregation-styles]

The monarch butterfly and the mountain lion are complicating the already complex Bakersfield-to-Palmdale portion of California’s High-Speed Rail project.

The High-Speed Rail Authority was recently forced to revise environmental impact documents after both creatures became candidates for endangered species lists. The revisions must take place to satisfy the California Environmental Quality Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, which require mitigation efforts for significant environmental impacts.

Unfortunately for mountain lions and monarch butterflies, the HSRA found that the High-Speed Rail could significantly impact their populations.

That, despite the fact that neither the mountain lion nor the monarch butterfly have been observed in the area along the rail line. Still, HSRA says it will put mitigation measures in place to limit the impacts on the two populations during and after construction of the railway.

“The environmental process is set up so that you’ve got to make everybody aware in the notification process of what the potential impacts are. But just because there’s a potential impact doesn’t mean you can’t build it. It just means you have to mitigate it,” said Rob Ball, deputy director of Kern Council of Governments.

An HSR spokesperson said by email that the revisions would not add significant cost to the $15.7 billion project, nor would they alter the timeline.

Read More →

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Who Runs Elon Musk’s DOGE? Not Musk, the White House Says.

DON'T MISS

New Self-Pollinating Almond Tree Could Be Huge for a Big Fresno Cash Crop

DON'T MISS

Madera County Secures First Fentanyl-Related Homicide Conviction

DON'T MISS

Musk Team Seeks Access to IRS System With Taxpayers’ Records

DON'T MISS

Bannon Calls Musk a ‘Parasitic Illegal Immigrant’

DON'T MISS

Fresno Weather Forecast: Pretty as a Postcard

DON'T MISS

Kennedy Says ‘Nothing’ Off-Limits in Scrutinizing Chronic Disease

DON'T MISS

Judge Declines to Immediately Block Elon Musk or DOGE From Federal Data or Layoffs

DON'T MISS

NBA Playoff Race Heats Up as All-Star Break Ends

DON'T MISS

NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon Talks ‘Days of Thunder’ Sequel With Tom Cruise

UP NEXT

Rise of the Anti-“Woke” Democrat

UP NEXT

High-Level Saudi Visit Follows Multimillion-Dollar Foreign Influence Operation

UP NEXT

Iran and Russia Move to Fill Diplomatic Vacuum in Afghanistan

UP NEXT

Pelosi’s Husband Locked In $5.3 Million From Alphabet Options

UP NEXT

Experts Reportedly See Major Damage in Attack on Iran Centrifuge Plant

UP NEXT

Opinion: School Choice Marches Ahead

UP NEXT

Zakaria: Americans Care About History Because the Stakes Are High

UP NEXT

California Democrats Are Reliably Pro-Labor. But One Union Is Testing Their Patience.

UP NEXT

The Tightrope Walk Democrats Have Ahead on Two Separate Infrastructure Bills

UP NEXT

Bill Barr on Trump’s Election Fraud Claims: “It Was All Bullsh*t”

Musk Team Seeks Access to IRS System With Taxpayers’ Records

2 hours ago

Bannon Calls Musk a ‘Parasitic Illegal Immigrant’

2 hours ago

Fresno Weather Forecast: Pretty as a Postcard

2 hours ago

Kennedy Says ‘Nothing’ Off-Limits in Scrutinizing Chronic Disease

2 hours ago

Judge Declines to Immediately Block Elon Musk or DOGE From Federal Data or Layoffs

2 hours ago

NBA Playoff Race Heats Up as All-Star Break Ends

2 hours ago

NASCAR’s Jeff Gordon Talks ‘Days of Thunder’ Sequel With Tom Cruise

3 hours ago

Adames Joins Giants, Excited to Team Up With Gold Glover Chapman

3 hours ago

Leonard Peltier Released After Biden Commuted Sentence in FBI Agents’ Killings

4 hours ago

Not Quite a Unified Theory of Trumpism, but Still an Alarming Pattern

4 hours ago

Who Runs Elon Musk’s DOGE? Not Musk, the White House Says.

WASHINGTON — Who, exactly, runs the so-called Department of Government Efficiency? You might think it would be Elon Musk, the man who Presid...

15 minutes ago

15 minutes ago

Who Runs Elon Musk’s DOGE? Not Musk, the White House Says.

52 minutes ago

New Self-Pollinating Almond Tree Could Be Huge for a Big Fresno Cash Crop

Fentanyl M30 Pills
1 hour ago

Madera County Secures First Fentanyl-Related Homicide Conviction

2 hours ago

Musk Team Seeks Access to IRS System With Taxpayers’ Records

FILE — Steve Bannon speaks to reporters outside State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Feb. 11, 2025. Stephen Bannon, a top adviser during President Trump’s first term and a key figure among his supporters, said Elon Musk wants to “play-act as God” as part of his push to overhaul the federal government. (Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times)
2 hours ago

Bannon Calls Musk a ‘Parasitic Illegal Immigrant’

2 hours ago

Fresno Weather Forecast: Pretty as a Postcard

2 hours ago

Kennedy Says ‘Nothing’ Off-Limits in Scrutinizing Chronic Disease

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as Elon Musk listens in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP/Alex Brandon)
2 hours ago

Judge Declines to Immediately Block Elon Musk or DOGE From Federal Data or Layoffs

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend