The Mohave ground squirrel (MGS) is an endemic of the northwest Mojave Desert in California, USA. This is one of the fastest growing regions of the southwest United States resulting in a great deal of modification and loss of habitat (Leu et al. 2008) within the geographic range of the MGS. Habitat modification is due to urban development, utility infrastructure, transportation corridors, military training, and recreational activities (Leitner 2008). Although habitat loss is the greatest peril for MGS, direct losses to MGS such as mortalities due to roads can also be important and may affect population dynamics. Other indirect impacts due to predation from subsidized predators (e.g., common raven and coyote) have been connected to declines of other protected Mojave Desert species such as the desert tortoise (Boarman 2003, Esque et al. 2010), but are not currently quantified for MGS. Considered together, these landscape level disturbances have the potential to further reduce population numbers of MGS and reduce the patch size of habitats and connectivity among patches of suitable habitat. MGS are listed as Endangered under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) and a petition for listing the species as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act is under review by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In the petition, declines are attributed to large scale habitat losses and continuing trends in this process due to growing human population, infrastructure to support human populations and multiple incompatible uses on public lands (Defenders of Wildlife and Stewart 2005).
With potential increases in renewable energy development using solar, wind, and thermal power sources further habitat disturbance seems imminent, however the potential costs and benefits to the system as a result of these activities have not been evaluated comprehensively. Although considerable investment has been made in acquiring distribution and population data through a variety of sources, there are still large data gaps in the sampling of potential habitat areas where the status of MGS is uncertain or unknown. The lack of sufficient information to reliably determine the effect of renewable energy projects on MGS has directly resulted in the delay of new renewable energy project development in southern California. This research is designed to provide analyses of the status of suitable habitat and an evaluation of habitat corridors throughout the range of MGS for use by resource managers, and other public and private agencies to reduce uncertainty surrounding the placement of development and supporting infrastructure of renewable energy development in the Mojave Desert of southern California.