WIND FIGHTS TO GET IT RIGHT

Will wildlife or wind power win out?
Josephine Marcotty, January 2012 (Minneapolis Star Tribune via News & Observer)

"A large number of eagles really are active around the footprint of a controversial wind farm under development in Goodhue County, according to a wildlife survey the developer conducted…But the count has been inflated by local opponents who are purposely attracting birds by dumping animal carcasses on the site as part of an organized eagle-baiting campaign, the project developer says…

"…The charges have not been verified by state investigators. But they represent yet another escalation in a fight occurring at other sites around the country as the wind industry evolves…[T]here is a growing realization nationally that the clean energy from wind is having an effect on wildlife."

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"…Bald and golden eagles are protected by federal law…To date there are only five known instances in North America of bald eagles killed by wind turbines, said Rich Davis, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who has been monitoring the project for two years. But the Goodhue project is the first to be constructed in an area widely used by bald and golden eagles for nesting and migrating, he said…

"The project, in short, is likely to be a large experiment in how and if both species can accommodate turbines…The PUC ordered Goodhue Wind to conduct a wildlife survey and develop a protection plan, which was filed in December. The document says collisions with eagles will be rare, but projections are uncertain because the surveys ‘have been seriously compromised by an active baiting program being conducted by project opponents’…"