Instead, Mr. Henen often hustles out to remote parts of the Mojave Desert to make sure the threatened deserttortoise, which can weigh 10 pounds and live to be more than 50 years old, isn't frightened by charging troops.
Mr. Henen, who has a doctorate in biology, is part of a little-known army of biologists and other scientists who manage the Mojave deserttortoise and about 420 other threatened and endangered species on about 28 million acres of federally managed military land.
It took a torturous three-year environmental review by state and federal authorities before Ivanpah received its license and the project is currently the subject of two lawsuits filed by an environmental organization and a Native American group over its impact on the imperiled deserttortoise and cultural artifacts.