A proposal to cut down hundreds of invasive tamarisk trees in a desert community east of Bakersfield, CA, to build a solar power plant is seen as "a big environmental win" by local officials. Other proposals to build solar farms on hundreds of thousands of acres in the desert Southwest have split the environmental movement and divided local communities. For solar developers and some green groups, the projects are desperately needed in the fight against climate change; others see them as a threat to unique and fragile ecosystems.