Do Wind Turbines Really Kill Birds?
(Page 2 of 4)
March 4, 2009
By Alison Rogers
What needs to happen in order to move ahead with renewable energy development, without placing further strain on wildlife?
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LJ: It’s going to center around siting. I think the industry has had a good track record. We were all concerned about the impact we saw on bat populations, but we responded immediately, and the good news is we haven’t had other big issues come up. Looking ahead, we will have the Wind Turbine Guidelines Advisory Committee. It’s a federal committee composed of industry, state, conservation groups and more. They all have a stake in trying to minimize wildlife impacts and they’re putting together a national framework of voluntary guidelines for development of wind power.
At the same time, wind projects have to comply with federal regulations such as the Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act and other wildlife protection laws. One of the challenges for the advisory committee is to find a way to make their recommendations for the siting guidelines fit into all of those laws.
They have a lot of work to do! But the people who are involved are putting a huge amount of time and effort into getting this right, because I think everyone understands how important wildlife-friendly wind development is.
Dr. Albert Manville, senior wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Tell us your views on the severity of the wind industry’s impact on birds, bats and other wildlife.
AM: The Department of Interior strongly supports the development of renewable energy, including commercial wind energy. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeks to avoid or minimize impacts to wildlife and their habitats while maximizing opportunities for renewable energy development. This includes ensuring that siting, construction, and operating decisions are based on the best available and most current scientific evidence.
Bats have recently been documented to be killed in large numbers on wooded ridge tops in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and wind development on forested ridge tops in the Appalachian Front is a specific concern for peregrine falcons and golden eagles that tend to migrate below ridge lines. Altamont Pass, Calif., where the collision problems with raptors (especially golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, American kestrels and burrowing owls) were first documented in the early 1990s, continues to kill large numbers of birds each year.
Current estimates and results from some North American studies at wind facilities indicate that collision impacts to birds are presently generally small, with perhaps a few exceptions. The industry estimates mortality at around 58,000 per year; I estimate it to be closer to 440,000 per year. The difference is due to basic flaws in the design and implementation of some of the [industry-conducted] mortality studies. These involve the duration and intensity of monitoring, as well as the size of the dead bird and bat search areas. With studies at communication towers, searches occur every morning, beginning a half hour before dawn, usually during peak periods of migration, for periods of three to four weeks. We do not see the same search protocols conducted at wind turbines.
