January 10, 2017
Colorado, Letters

Wind energy must do more to protect eagles

The Denver Post | January 9, 2017 | www.denverpost.com

Re: “Eagles and wind power can coexist,” Jan. 5 letter to the editor.

Tom Vinson, in his letter on wind turbines and eagles, writes, “More than 90 percent of wind projects have zero impact. Of those that do, the vast majority impact a single eagle over 30 years.”

While the wind industry has made improvements in the siting of wind farms and consideration of impact to eagles, fatality surveys do not support his last sentence. If there is eagle nesting and foraging habitat nearby, there will be casualties, and optimal sites for wind generation in the West often overlap with such habitat.

This makes it important to continue post-construction fatality monitoring. Compensation for deaths could be made in the form of habitat conservation, acquisition, and improvement. It is harder to predict when a landscape becomes so fragmented and degraded that birds move on to other areas, if they are available.

C. Greenman, Lakewood


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/01/10/wind-energy-must-do-more-to-protect-eagles/