Just last week national environmental organizations The Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Center for Biological Diversity agreed not to pursue legal actions against First Solar, Inc.’s (NASDAQ: FSLR) Topaz Solar Farm, a 550-megawatt photovoltaic farm proposed for the Carrizo Plain in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.

But local activists groups North County Watch and Carrizo Commons weren’t satisfied with the agreements the national organizations made with solar companies. As such, they filed a suit in Superior Court on Aug. 12 challenging Topaz Solar Farm’s approval.

First Solar and SunPower Corp. (NASDAQ: SPWRA, SPWRB)—which is building a 250-megawatt solar farm in the same area—reached agreements with the environmental organizations last week.

Under the agreements, the two companies are adding more than 9,000 acres to the 17,000 acres of land on the Carrizo plain that they already agreed to preserve and removing 30 miles of fencing throughout the project areas to allow for greater wildlife traffic. They also pledged to not use any rodenticides.

“These projects, because of the federal incentives [expiring] were really rushed through the approval process, and there are a lot of flaws in the environmental analysis from our standpoint,” North County Watch President Susan Harvey said. “When the settlement details became public, I was disappointed because the level of protection I thought had been agreed upon on at the time had deteriorated significantly since the discussions.”

The agreements fragment the land used by 34 species that are considered endangered, threatened or considered special status species, according to North County Watch.

“The two projects take out big chunks of habitat for all the species,” Harvey said. “It supports this whole ecosystem of interconnected species.”

Two animals in particular, the kit fox and the pronghorn antelope, will be impacted by the solar installations, Harvey said.

“This area is the last remaining area for the San Joaquin kit fox,” she said. “Less than 5 percent of the of the ecosystem remains in its original state.”

The pronghorn was reintroduced to the region by the California Department of Fish and Game in the 1980s.

“This area is essentially the only herd that’s become self-sustaining,” Harvey said. The pronghorn need swaths of land with which to outdistance their predators.

Harvey supports development of solar, but not in sensitive areas.

Other areas could be more suitable for development, which already include existing transmission lines, such as the Imperial Valley and the Westlands, which aren’t inhabited by endangered species and can’t be used for agriculture.

Pictured: The Topaz Solar farm in the distance.