Resource Library Category: Wildlife (97 items)
Documents presented here are not the product of nor are they necessarily endorsed by National Wind Watch. This resource library is provided to assist anyone wishing to research the issue of industrial wind power and the impacts of its development. The information should be evaluated by each reader to come to their own conclusions about the many areas of debate.
Open Letter to Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)
Author: Bellamy, David; and Duchamp, Mark
It is disturbing to wildlife conservationists such as ourselves, and we know it is equally disturbing to our numerous Scottish friends, that you should assist in the destruction of Scotland’s remarkable and precious wilderness. Your raison d’être is to preserve this natural heritage ; yet you are time and again endorsing the installation of wind farms in unspoilt landscapes of great beauty, or in natural habitats that are essential to the conservation of endangered birds.
Bird reserves are not even spared . . .
Proposed Content for the Renewable Energy Approval Regulation under the Environmental Protection Act
Author: Ontario Ministry of the Environment
Part IV – Explanation of Technology-Specific Requirements
A. Land-based Wind Turbine Facilities
It is proposed that wind turbine facilities with a name plate capacity equal to or less than 3 kW would not require a Renewable Energy Approval, and are therefore not subject to the requirements identified in this section. It is also proposed that proponents of these facilities will be exempt from having to obtain a certificate of approval under section 9 of the Environmental Protection Act. . . .
Life with a wind turbine 1300 feet away — the Wirtz family
Author: Better Plan, Wisconsin
Better Plan, Wisconsin presents the following story from a family living in a PSC approved wind farm with a wind turbine less than 1300 feet from their door:
They spoke to us on the evening of May 2, 2009, at their home which is located in Dodge County near the Town of Oakfield, Wisconsin.
Ann and Jason Wirtz bought their home on June 1st, 1996. It’s a pretty Wisconsin farmhouse near the Town of Oakfield in Dodge County. It’s the kind of . . .
Open Letter to the RSPB
Author: Bellamy, David; and Duchamp, Mark
The RSPB [Royal Society for the Protection of Birds] is advocating in favour of more wind farms across the UK. Yet in the United States the State of Birds report, released by U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last month, warns of the impact these installations are having on bird populations, which are already in sharp decline.
John Fitzpatrick, the director of the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology, helped draft the report along with nonprofit advocacy groups. Yahoo News reports: . . .
Effectiveness of Changing Wind Turbine Cut-in Speed to Reduce Bat Fatalities at Wind Facilities
Author: Arnett, Edward; Schirmacher, Michael; Huso, Manuela; and Hayes, John
“Data previously collected at operating wind energy facilities indicate that a substantial portion of the bat fatalities occurs during relatively low-wind conditions over a relatively short period of time during the summer-fall bat migration period (Arnett et al. 2008). Some curtailment of turbine operations during these conditions and during this period of time has been proposed as a possible means of reducing impacts to bats (Kunz et al. 2007, Arnett et al. 2008). Indeed, recent results from studies in . . .
Request to suspend work of FWS Wind Turbine Guidelines Advisory Committee
Author: Glitzenstein, Eric
The unmistakable import of [many statements] in the draft is that wildlife impacts that would be deemed unacceptable in the context of different kinds of projects should somehow be excused because of the "larger effects of climate change" on wildlife. Although it is indisputable that global climate change poses an enormous threat to wildlife, that affords no legal, scientific, or even logical basis for allowing wind projects to be constructed and sited in such a manner as to decimate bat and bird populations, or to significantly harm wildlife in other ways – as, unfortunately, is and will be the case with many operating and planned wind power projects.
Dissenting opinion in grant of permit for Deerfield wind project
Author: Burke, John
Docket No. 7250
I respectfully dissent from the Board’s decision to grant a CPG for the Deerfield Project. I do agree with my colleagues’ determinations that the Project will have adverse impacts on black bears and bear habitat, and that as proposed the Project offers insufficient benefits to offset those adverse impacts. Where I depart from the majority is their apparent conclusion that Deerfield can develop a plan that will sufficiently mitigate the impacts to bears and enter into purchase power . . .
Directrices para la Evaluación del Impacto de los Parques Eólicos en Aves y Murciélagos
Author: SEO/BirdLife
[Directives for Evaluating the Impact of Wind Farms on Birds and Bats]
Translation of its main points (by Mark Duchamp):
1. Spain has over 670 wind farms and 16,000 wind turbines.
2. Bird mortality varies betwen 0.63 and 10 birds per turbine per year in the US (National Wind Coordinating Committee, 2004), and between 1.2 in Oíz (Biscayne; Unamuno et al., 2005) and 64.26 at the El Perdón wind farm (Navarra; Lekuona, 2001). “This would indicate that Spanish wind farms could actually be . . .
State of The Birds — United States of America 2009
Author: North American Bird Conservation Initiative
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took the lead in creating this report through an unprecedented partnership involving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state wildlife agencies, and nongovernmental organizations as a subcommittee of the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative.
Birds are a priceless part of America’s heritage. They are beautiful, they are economically important—and they reflect the health of our environment. This State of the Birds report reveals troubling declines of bird populations during the past 40 years—a warning . . .
Letters from N.H. Audubon Society to Site Evaluation Committee and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Author: Audubon Society of New Hampshire
February 27, 2009
Thomas S. Burack, Chairman
Site Evaluation Committee
N.H. Department of Environmental Services
29 Hazen Drive
Concord. NH 03301
Re: Application of Granite Reliable Power, LLC, Docket No. 2008-04
Dear Chairman Burack,
The Audubon Society of New Hampshire is a statewide non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of wildlife and habitat throughout New Hampshire. We appreciate the opportunity to comment on the application of Granite Reliable Power, LLC for a certificate for site and facility for a wind energy installation in Coos County . . .
