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Appendix E:
Mitigation of Visual Resource Impacts
in the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone
1.0 Introduction
Utility-scale solar development
often involves a long-term
commitment of relatively large
areas of land and may result in
substantial impacts to visual
resource values. Unavoidable
impacts to visual resources are
those that cannot be adequately
mitigated onsite by avoidance
and/or by the implementation
of design features meant to
minimize impacts that lead to a
loss or reduction in inventoried
visual values. It is recognized that
regional mitigation may not always
be warranted for all unavoidable
visual resource impacts. The BLM’s
interim policy, Draft Manual Section
1794, “Regional Mitigation” (referred
to as the Regional Mitigation
Manual throughout the rest of
this appendix) outlines interim
policy for taking a landscape-scale
regional approach to mitigating
project impacts to resources and
values managed by the BLM. This
interim policy guided the process
developed for determining the
need to mitigate visual impacts
in the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone
(SEZ) at a regional level.
The process of preliminarily
identifying unavoidable impacts to
all resources (e.g., soils, ecological
resources, cultural resources) that
may warrant regional mitigation
(explained in Sections 2.4.3.1 and
2.4.3.2 of this strategy) evaluates:
1. Resource condition and
regional trends affecting the
resource.
2. Importance placed on the
resource in the land use plan.
3. Rarity, legal status, or state/
national policy of the resource.
4. Resilience of the resource in the
face of change and impact.
This appendix provides
additional information on a strategy
for considering regional mitigation
to compensate for certain
unavoidable impacts to visual
values that may result from solar
development within the Dry Lake
SEZ. The criteria for preliminarily
identifying unavoidable impacts
to visual resource values that
may warrant regional mitigation
follows the same logic used for all
resources outlined in the Dry Lake
Solar Regional Mitigation Strategy
(SRMS), but the evaluation is
tailored to consider the following:
1. General regional condition of
the visual resource reflected in
the visual resource inventory
(VRI).
2. Scarcity of the resource at the
regional scale.
3. Resilience of the resource in the
face of change and impact.
4. Importance placed on the
resource in the land use plan.
In addition to the Regional
Mitigation Manual, the process
described in this appendix
follows the guidance outlined
in the BLM technical reference
titled “Procedural Guidance
for Developing Solar Regional
Mitigation Strategies” (SRMS Tech
Reference), Appendix F: Mitigation
of Impacts on Visual Resources.
Additional sources used to develop
the following include the BLM’s
“Visual Resource Management”
Manual MS-8400, “Visual Resource
Inventory” Handbook H-8410-1, and
“Visual Resource Contrast Rating”
Handbook H-8431-1.
2.0 Visual Resources within the Dry
Lake Solar Energy Zone and the
Mojave Desert Ecoregion
This appendix addresses two
aspects of visual resources, which
are mentioned in this strategy
under 2.5.1, Background on
Regional Goals:
1. Change to visual resource
values within the boundary of
the SEZ.
2. Change within the SEZ that
would affect the visitor’s
scenery viewing experience
from lands with legislated
protection for scenery and/or
landscape settings, including
the following types of specially
designated areas:
a. National parks.
b. National wildlife refuges.
c. Wilderness areas.
d. National scenic and historic
trails.
e. Special recreation
management areas.
This appendix follows the
progression of basic steps to
ascertain whether regional
REGIONAL MITIGATION STRATEGY FOR THE DRY LAKE SOLAR ENERGY ZONE • TECHNICAL NOTE 444 • 63