Agency aims to protect eagles from wind farms

[joshcryer]

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is adopting new standards aimed at protecting bats and birds from wind turbines. In Oregon, existing wind farms are being reviewed and pending projects are under scrutiny for their potential bird impacts, with four seeing particular attention.

The issue is the latest sign of increasing tension between wind development and rural concerns in Oregon. A recent citizen vote against Horizon Wind Energy's proposed Antelope Ridge wind farm in Union County indicate future wind projects will face stiffer scrutiny in the state, particularly as development is proposed into higher elevations and increasingly sensitive habitat.

Oregon is not the only state affected by advancing federal efforts to protect birds and bats, however. In territory spanning from the Pacific Coast to the Dakotas, south to Arizona and north into Canada, surveys show Golden Eagles are in decline, accounting for one reason Fish and Wildlife Service developed permits for "takes" or killing of the birds in 2009. The siting standards now being developed for wind farms are aimed at charting a path forward for wind developers who want greater guidance on how to move ahead with projects. Though the standards are not laws, developers could face criminal penalties if birds and bats are killed by projects that failed to abide them.


http://www.sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2010/11/new-rules-aimed-at-protecting-eagles.html

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Found this while looking up the Steens project, to see if Oregon had voted it down, can't find anything else, but I thought this was interesting. I can't find the Fish and Wildlife new standards yet but I'll try again when I wake up, got a nasty sore throat right now.

[Confusious]

1. They had something that would keep birds

from hitting windows a while back. Something in the ultraviolet range.

wonder if they could do something like that for wind farms, like ultraviolet lights. ( just guessing on that part, it was something with their sight and regular windows being transparent)