Idaho wildlife may need to duck for cover or find another place to live because the may just find themselves blown to bits out at the Idaho National Laboratory in the Arco desert area.

INL researchers plan to blow up car bombs and other terrorist-like contraptions in the 890-square-mile patch of desert to test the stability of structures hit by fanatics with bombs.

According to the INL website, the lab is constructing a “new multipurpose research and development explosives test range” that can handle “explosive events with a maximum charge weight of up to 20,000 pounds TNT, inert projectiles with a maximum flight of 8,000 meters and shoulder-fired rockets.”

The Associated Press reports that INL spokesman Ethan Huffman said regular tests would occur weekly and monthly. The AP quotes Huffman as saying, “This is purely defensive research.”

The idea is to test the stability of various U.S. infrastructures, such as power stations, dams and so-called “soft targets” such as shopping malls and sports complexes.

Not everyone is thrilled about blowing up the desert, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes expressed concerns about wildlife habitat, as well as potential damage to cultural resources in the east Idaho desert. The Tribes land is located nearby at the Fort Hall Reservation.

Although the leopard lizard and whipsnake have habitat in the area, Marilyn Manguba, the Nature Conservancy’s protections specialist for Idaho told the AP that INL has “set it up so that it will have a specific direction that the explosions go. They’ll be able to contain it.”

The area is also close to a sage grouse mating area and a nesting site for ferruginous hawks.

The AP also noted that Manguba is “a former INL contract worker who helped draft her group’s response to the DOE’s explosives plan.”

Human habitat is said to be about 60 miles from the blasting area.

Article link (and videos)