Resource Library Category: Wildlife (111 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.
What’s it like to live in a Wisconsin wind farm?
Author: Barry, Lynda
Wisconsin writer Lynda Barry has been interviewing wind farm residents for a book she is putting together that answers the question, “What’s it like to live in a Wisconsin wind farm?” She’s interviewed people from 20 households in both the Blue Sky/Green Field wind farm near the Town of Malone and also the Invenergy Forward Energy wind farm near the Town of Byron. Both wind farms have a setback of 1000 feet from non-participating homes.
This excerpt, from the up-coming book, . . .
Wind turbine placement must consider vibration effect on animals
Author: Armstrong, Kay
When researching the impact the impacts of industrial wind turbines on migration of birds and bats, please consider the following:
I live in close proximity to a wind farm on the north shore of Lake Erie, the closest turbine being 460 meters from my property of 2.4 acres.
This wind farm is located in Clear Creek, Ontario and is comprised of 18 – 1.65 MW Vestas V82’s.
It is an extension of the Erie Shores Wind Farm in Port Burwell Ontario, a wind . . .
Environment, Health, Human rights, Noise, Ontario, Regulations, Wildlife •
Summary of Recent Research on Adverse Health Effects of Wind Turbines
Author: Stelling, Keith; and Krogh, Carmen
Authorities and politicians in Ontario have been repeatedly warned that industrial wind turbines are having an adverse effect on the health of those living nearby.
Health complaints are not peculiar to this province but are consistent throughout the world wherever large industrial wind turbines have been installed.
Contrary to the claims of the industry, there is a growing body of peer-reviewed research substantiating these health claims. This report attempts to catalogue the most recent.
A generally acknowledged major concern about wind turbine disturbance . . .
Migratory Bird Use of Delaware Bay with Respect to Risks of Wind Energy Development
Author: N.J. Dept. of Environmental Protection
Scott Brubaker, the DEP’s assistant commissioner for land use management, informs Delsea Energy in an Aug. 20 letter “that the Delaware Bay is not an appropriate area for development of wind energy”:
[I]n considering this issue, the Department has determined that we have, over many years of study and evaluation, developed sufficient information regarding the diversity, scope, and importance of avian resources in and around the Delaware Bay. Based on these data, we conclude that, at this time, this area is . . .
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
[Note: These requirements are in effect as of September 24, 2009.]
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 . . .
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.
