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Wind farm turbine blades are killing a key population of Europe's largest bird of prey, UK wildlife campaigners warn.

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Originally posted by HalfMooner

Ah, Jeeze! People try to do the right "green" thing, and looks what it gets you. I'll try to come up with a solution, but in the meantime I suggest building poultry processing plants adjacent to the wind farms.

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Originally posted by Cuneiformist

But what does eagle taste like?

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Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse

Build nuclear plants instead. Or vertical turbine towers, as suggested in Australia(?).

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A row of Altamont Pass wind turbines is made beautiful by a crimson sunset, but the
windmills have also been deadly for many raptors. Chronicle file photo by Michael Macor

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Bird killings at Altamont Pass
Environmental group files suit against wind turbine companies
- Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Operators of giant wind turbines in Altamont Pass should be ordered to stop the routine, illegal killing of about 1,000 eagles, hawks and owls every year, an environmental group argues in a lawsuit filed Monday.

The Center for Biological Diversity in Oakland charged a Florida company, FPL Group Inc., and a Danish wind power company, NEG Micon A/S, and other operators with violating the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes it illegal to kill migratory birds without permits.

The group's suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, alleges that the companies are breaking the unfair competition law under the California Business and Professions Code.

It's illegal to violate state or federal laws in the course of a business' activities.

The suit also alleges that the wind turbine operators are engaging in an unfair business practice by receiving government subsidies and tax credits that are intended to promote environmentally sound production of energy when in fact the activities are causing harm.

The lawsuit is asking for a jury trial and a judgment that would stop the alleged harmful activity and force the companies to return profits.

The wind turbines were erected in the Altamont Pass starting in the early 1980s. Since then, biologists have recorded thousands of deaths of golden eagles, red-tailed and ferruginous hawks, American kestrels, turkey vultures and great horned, barn and burrowing owls.

The group is filing the suit now because Alameda County is issuing new use permits and the turbine operators are upgrading technology and enlarging the turbines.

Studies show that Altamont Pass has the worst bird-kill problem in the world among wind farms, because the turbines are located in a major migration route for birds of prey in North America that attracts among the highest concentration of golden eagles in the world.

"Altamont has become a death zone for eagles and other magnificent and imperiled birds of prey. Birds come into the pass to hunt and get chopped up by the blades,'' said Jeff Miller, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity.

The group isn't trying to shut the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, a state-designated area in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

Wind power provides a small percentage of the state's total energy needs but is a promising, fast-growing technology, environmental groups say.

The Center for Biological Diversity is asking for several immediate protective measures at the wind farms.

Measures include letting grass grow tall around the wind turbines so raptors can't see their rodent prey; reducing populations of ground squirrels and other rodents; removing turbines from certain canyons and valleys; and clustering the turbines and making the blades more visible to birds.

In Juno Beach, Fla., Steve Stengel, spokesman for FPL Energy, a subsidiary of FPL Group, said his company hadn't yet seen the suit and couldn't comment on it.

The company, which has 42 wind farm projects nationwide, has been working for years on measures to lessen the impact on birds, Stengel said.

FPL generates 220 megawatts from 2,000 turbines, about a third of those in the pass.

"We've been active participants in giving research money. We've installed screens and perch guards for the birds, done tests on painting rotor blades in alternative colors and participated in a rodent control program,'' Stengel said.

When looking at bird deaths per turbine, Altamont Pass doesn't have the worst bird-kill record, he said.

"Clearly we realize there's an issue in the Altamont. That's why we're so active in research activities and mitigation measures," Stengel said. FPL has been talking with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Energy Commission for the past 18 months on a set of mitigation measures and expects to have a plan early this year.

Benito Perez, special agent in charge of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's office of law enforcement in Portland, said that every time a migratory bird gets killed at a wind turbine in Altamont Pass, it is a violation of the law.

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Originally posted by HalfMooner

Ah, Jeeze! People try to do the right "green" thing, and looks what it gets you. I'll try to come up with a solution, but in the meantime I suggest building poultry processing plants adjacent to the wind farms.

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Originally posted by Ricky
I like that. Send the dead eagles off to starving people, like in Africa. It'd be hitting two birds with... one blade.

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Originally posted by beskeptigal

I'm going to look further into this. There seems to be a lot of controversy over how dangerous these are to birds. We have lots of wind farms and eagles on the Columbia Gorge here and I have not heard this complaint yet. One would think if it occurred very often we'd have heard of it here in WA State.

Well, this seems to be the problem, "He said most wind farms would not cause any harm to birds but that the Smola wind farm had been badly sited in a place where it put white-tailed eagles at risk.", not the wind farm per se.

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