Study shows hundreds of dead birds, bats at wind turbines 
Goshawk
Wind farms and the RSPB
The RSPB views climate change as the most serious long-term threat to wildlife in the UK and globally and, therefore, we support the Government's target to source 15% of electricity from renewables by 2015.
To meet this target, the
RSPB favours a broad mix of renewables, especially those, like solar
energy, with large long- term potential and minimal environmental
impacts. However, wind power has the greatest potential to make a
significant difference in the UK in the coming decade. It is the most
advanced and widely available of the new renewable technologies.
Kestrel
The available evidence suggests that appropriately positioned wind
farms do not pose a significant hazard for birds. However, evidence
from the US and Spain confirms that poorly sited wind farms can cause
severe problems for birds, through disturbance, habitat loss/damage or
collision with turbines.
Because
of this, the RSPB has objected to 76 wind farm proposals (on and
offshore) between 2000-2004 and has raised concerns about a further
129. The RSPB recently objected to a proposed 234 turbine wind farm on
the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides, on an extremely fragile and special
area for wildlife.
Buzzard
Environmental assessment
The
RSPB insists that all wind farm proposals are subject to rigorous
environmental assessment before development is permitted and that the
effects of any approved developments are monitored before and after
construction.
"We will, and do, object to specific wind farm
proposals where there is an inadequate environmental assessment, where
the assessment reveals potential environmental problems that cannot be
mitigated, or where there is insufficient knowledge about the threat to
sensitive bird populations or their habitats to conclude that there
will not be a problem."
Research and monitoring
To
ensure that future wind farms do not affect sensitive bird populations
or their habitats, the RSPB is pressing the government for more
research and monitoring of the effects of these developments on birds.
Sparrowhawk
Merlin
Risks to birds, especially raptors, from wind turbines
Wind turbines have caused the deaths of huge birds of prey on isolated islands, wildlife campaigners have said.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said the discovery of four dead white tailed eagles off the Norwegian coast and the failure of almost 30 others to return to nesting sites within the wind farm area, has increased fears that wind farms in Britain could take a similar toll on native and migrating wild birds. The white tailed eagle, Europe's largest eagle species is found in significant numbers on Smola, a set of islands about six miles off the north-west Norwegian coast. The island is listed by Bird Life International as an Important Bird Area because it has one of the highest breeding densities of the bird in the world.
White tailed eagles are also
beginning to thrive in the Western Isles of Scotland as a direct result of a 30
year re-introduction project. Developers regard this area as ripe for wind farm
construction too.
Dr Mark Avery, Conservation Director at the RSPB said
"These
findings are shocking yet may only be the tip of the iceberg. Research
on Smola is being stepped up and if more dead birds are found and even
fewer are able to breed, we will be doubly determined to fight wind
farm plans that could cause similar destruction in the UK."
The four dead birds were found between August and December last
year. Two had been sliced in half, apparently by a turbine blade. Post
mortems blamed multiple trauma for the birds' deaths, caused by a heavy
blow.
The 68 turbine Smola wind farm was built between 2001 and 2005. The
Norwegian government ignored advice based on an environmental
assessment warning against the development because of the danger it
posed to white tailed eagles. Bird Life International took the case to
the Bern Convention but the decision was not overturned.
Research by the RSPB, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
and the Norwegian Sea Eagle Project will now be stepped up to include
regular checks for casualties throughout the wind park and monitoring
of this spring's breeding activity.
Stuart Housden, Director of RSPB Scotland said "The news from Norway
is of great concern to us. If white tailed eagles have died because of
wind turbine collisions there are major implications for our own eagle
populations here in Scotland.
"We are campaigning hard against the proposed 234 turbine wind farm
for the north Lewis peatlands partly because of the great danger it
poses to Scotland's eagles.
© Copyright Press Association Ltd 2006, All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, January 14, 2007, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Aviary tracking raptors to find safe sites for wind turbines
By Don Hopey
Todd Katzner, director of
conservation and field research at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh,
releases an eastern golden eagle near Central City, Somerset County, in
late November. Bird experts in Western Pennsylvania are tracking the
migratory habits of golden eagles to see what, if any, effect windmills
have on the birds.
Two golden eagles that soared along the Allegheny Front ridge in Central Pennsylvania late last year and are now gliding over the hills of West Virginia and Kentucky might one day help determine where new windmills will be built in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the East.
The wide-winged raptors are wearing tiny radio telemetry transmitters that allow National Aviary researchers to track their migration routes and eventually develop the first bird's-eye-view data showing where electric wind turbines should be built and not built to minimize the killing of eagles and other big birds.
Most wind turbine development has occurred without any scientific research on the consequences to migrating birds, according to Todd Katzner, director of conservation and field research at the National Aviary on the North Side. That has increased the risk that the turbine blades, some more than 100 feet long, will become bird slicers and dicers.
"Our broader goal is to identify ways in which wind power can be developed safely," Mr. Katzner said. "To say that we're looking at the effect of wind power on birds is partially true, but we're really trying to identify areas of high and low risk for windmill development."
More than 500 of the majestic raptors, Aquila chrysaetos, traverse the state twice a year during spring and fall migrations, as do bald eagles, osprey, falcons and a variety of hawks. Many of those raptor species, some of which are endangered or threatened like the eastern golden eagle, follow narrow corridors through the state.
Those airborne pathways, which the birds follow to take advantage of buoyant updrafts, run along the very ridge lines that wind power companies are eyeing for development.
"Not many folks are aware that there's a thousand golden eagles flying through Pennsylvania in November and December," Mr. Katzner said. "That sounds like a substantial number, but if you put turbines in the wrong place, they could have a significant impact on the population."
Wind power is the fastest growing energy technology, and Pennsylvania is the leading producer of wind energy east of the Mississippi River, generating 153 megawatts, enough to power 70,000 homes. Given that the state's goal is to boost wind power production to more than 3,000 megawatts, a 20-fold increase, over the next 15 years, the potential for mayhem along the Appalachian ridges is a significant concern
No one -- not birders, the wind power industry, nor the government agencies that issue permits for turbine sites -- wants a repeat of the siting debacle that occurred at Altamont Pass, near San Francisco, where 4,000 wind turbines were constructed on rolling grasslands that contain a large ground squirrel colony and are prime foraging grounds for migrating golden eagles and other raptors. Estimates put the number of birds killed annually at more than 4,700, about 1,300 of them raptors.
The wind power industry caught another black eye in 2004, when it was discovered that hundreds of migratory birds and up to 4,000 bats were killed by the whirling blades of 44 turbines in the Mountaineer Wind Energy Center on Backbone Mountain in West Virginia. Heavy bat mortality also occurred at the 20-turbine wind farm in Myersdale, Somerset County, which came on line in 2004.
"Any kind of additional information that would help make better decisions is something we would be interested in," said Frank Maisano, a spokesman for a coalition of wind power developers in the mid-Atlantic region. "But if we learn about a bird's flight path, that shouldn't automatically disqualify a site from siting consideration."
Christine Real de Azua, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association, said wind energy's impact on birds was a "very important issue," but was quick to add that fewer than one of 10,000 birds that die because of human causes is killed by a turbine. Most are killed because they run into buildings or windows or by house cats.
"We have a very light impact now, and if we can make it even lighter, that's a very good thing," she said. "The industry is committed to researching, responding and identifying solutions."
The goal of the aviary study, which could cost as much as $300,000 and is still seeking funding, is to produce maps that land managers, government regulators and the wind power industry will use to guide wind power development and turbine placement throughout the northeast. Golden eagles were selected for study because they are an "umbrella species," that migrate along routes shared by other raptors.
"Our aim is to provide the scientific information necessary to allow decision-makers to pursue use of renewable energy sources with environmental benefits, while, at the same time, developing this technology in an eagle-friendly way," Mr. Katzner said.
Efforts to track golden eagles began in late November, when two of the migrating birds were trapped at the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch, a ridge-top site operated by the Allegheny Plateau Audubon Society southwest of Central City.
The birds were outfitted with telemetry devices that transmit their locations via satellite link and show their flight paths in real time and their altitude and flight speed over a range of topographic and climatic conditions.
(To view a live map that tracks the progress of the eastern golden eagles that have been tagged, go to www.aviary.org/csrv/eaglePA.php.
During the spring migration, researchers will attempt to trap and strap the 4-ounce telemetry units to another eight golden eagles.
The National Aviary, in partnership with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Powdermill Avian Research Center, Lafayette College and the Tussey Mountain Hawkwatch, will collect data from the transmitters for at least a year and, possibly, as long as three. The information will be used to create computer models that predict migration patterns for the eastern golden eagles, which range from the southern United States to northern Canada.
"The models will enable us to look at the cumulative impacts of many wind farms on eagle movements and identify critical migration bottlenecks where turbine development should proceed with caution," Mr. Katzner said. "It is essential to have this kind of detailed information before wind power projects are sited and constructed."
He said golden eagles and other raptors that follow similar migration pathways could be spared fatal encounters with the whirling wind turbine blades if the turbines are moved a couple of hundred feet or the angle of the turbine blades related to a ridge is altered.
The state Department of Environmental Protection, which issues permits for windmill sites, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, charged with protecting all of the state's wildlife, don't know how many birds wind turbines kill now, but both agencies are interested in the data the aviary's study will produce.
DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty is heading a statewide committee looking at wind energy regulation, including siting guidelines, and the Game Commission is pushing for voluntary agreements with individual wind power developers that require siting guidelines protective of birds and bats.
Those agreements would set guidelines for monitoring birds 18 months before turbine construction and continuing after a turbine starts spinning. Proposals to install wind turbines in Important Bird Areas, designated by the Audubon Society, would be required to do more detailed monitoring, as would those proposed for migratory routes. A separate, voluntary siting guideline agreement also is under development by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Jerry Feaser, a Game Commission spokesman, said the commission was very interested in the aviary study and the information it could provide. At its meeting Jan. 23, the commission will vote on a proposal to provide $25,000 from its federally funded Game Fund to the project.
"Our concern is that the DEP's process is broader and a lot of wind power companies are trying to move ahead quickly," Mr. Feaser said. "We're trying to get ahead of that with agreements to avoid, minimize and if necessary, mitigate, impacts on birds and bats."
(Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com or 001 412-263-1983. )
