filed: December 28, 2011 • Letters, North Carolina

Belongs to the birds

Credit: News & Observer, www.newsobserver.com 28 December 2011 ~~

Regarding the Dec. 21 article “Doubts fly over wind farm,” the location of the industrial wind turbines for the Pantego Wind project is unsuitable because of the large population of wintering migratory waterfowl. Industrial wind facilities must be located in areas that will avoid and minimize negative effects to wildlife.

This location is an Audubon Global Important Bird Area. The Pungo Unit of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1963 to serve as an inviolate waterfowl sanctuary. Tens of thousands migratory waterfowl make their winter home here, with peak numbers well in excess of 100,000. They rest on Pungo Lake and feed in the surrounding farm fields.

The location for the proposed wind turbines is a primary foraging area for waterfowl, especially for the tundra swans. I am very pleased that 70 percent to 80 percent of the eastern population of tundra swans make North Carolina’s Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula their winter home. We need to cherish and protect them. The huge population of wintering migratory waterfowl, the East Coast home for wintering tundra swans, a National Wildlife Refuge that is an inviolate waterfowl sanctuary and an Audubon Global Important Bird Area should have eliminated this site from consideration.

Frances T. Armstrong

Bath

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