Shasta County Sued by Manton Residents over Solar Project
In the March 2026 Firecracker!, I discussed a 25-acre solar project proposed to be placed in a wooded area of which 14+ acres was blue oak woodland. At the final Shasta County Planning Commission meeting, two commissioners, one a retired forester and the other a biologist, were adamantly opposed to the project because it would be removing an important blue oak woodland without proper mitigation. Two retired university biology professors who own land in the area, as well as myself and area residents, also wrote letters opposing the project.
Unfortunately, the project was approved on a 3 to 2 vote. Manton residents appealed the decision to the Board of Supervisors (BOS), but the project was approved by a 4 to 1 vote. The minutes of the Planning Commission meeting were never approved by the Commission because of disputes over the failure to include the objections to the solar project by the commissioners and the possible resulting legal action. Yet the BOS voted to approve the project despite the lack of approved minutes of the Planning Commission.
With the support of many Manton area residents, it was decided to file a lawsuit against Shasta County on a number of grounds. Marily Woodhouse wrote an appeal of the decision, which took many hours of research, writing, and typing. She finished and filed the lawsuit, a Writ of Mandate, on Friday, April 24. Area residents and I helped with some of the legwork and delivery of letters to the County, but that was nothing compared to the many hours Woodhouse spent on her filing.
This lawsuit has an importance even greater than this specific project as there are many other solar projects in preliminary stages in the greater Manton area, and even a 950-acre one in Millville Plains. Shasta County and the City of Redding Planning Departments will often accept grossly substandard Biological Assessment Surveys that do not follow CEQA regulations or California Department of Fish and Wildlife protocols. We hope Shasta County Planning Department will no longer accept the many substandard Biological Assessments and surveys that I have seen on projects. If so, this will result in better protection of rare and sensitive plants and wildlife and proper mitigation for sensitive species and for the removal of our oak woodlands.
Battle Creek Watershed currently has an ongoing restoration project overseen by the Bureau of Reclamation to bring the return of the salmon and steelhead trout to the watershed. The project will remove five small hydroelectric dams built in the 1920s and diversion dams in the watershed that are blocking migrating fish. One dam and several diversion dams have already been removed and two non-functioning hydroelectric dams are approved for removal—one this year and one in 2027. Thus far, this project has cost over $160 million dollars. Continued removal of oak woodlands in the watershed could lead to increased in-stream temperatures and sedimentation, in direct conflict with the ongoing restoration efforts.
~David Ledger, Conservation Chair
