Few are aware of the staggering profit by way of contracts payable to avian specialists in an industry borne from wind towers that kill birds.

This service industry is referred to as "Adaptive Management," and/or "long-term environmental monitoring." Its value is $2 million to $3 million first year startup for a wind project, based on the value of Altamont, Calif., wind tower monitoring contracts.

These contracts represent $1 million per year paid to the monitor during construction phase, and impose terms as Mass Audubon has in their "Challenge" press release: "We also propose adoption of an Adaptive Management Plan that includes a rigorous monitoring program beginning at the construction phase and continuing for at least three years post-construction."

When a permit-reviewing agency stands to financially benefit by the outcome of permit review process, bias is a component of the critical environmental review of a project. By all appearances, Mass Audubon is marketing Cape Wind, which would kill up to 6,600 birds per year.

Mass Audubon on Feb. 23, 2005, wrote to Army Corps of Engineers: "By utilizing other bird mortality data provided in the (Draft Environmental Impact Statement), Mass Audubon staff scientists arrived at avian mortalities that ranged from 2,300 to 6,600 collision deaths per year."

Taber Allison of Mass Audubon recants this testimony on bird kill by Cape Wind: "Mass Audubon scientists have never concluded that up to 6,600 birds, or any number of birds, would be killed if this project is permitted," (Aug. 3, 2006, South Coast Today).

How does one "mitigate" the deaths of up to 6,600 birds, annually, in this flyway, Nantucket Sound, with documented federally protected endangered species present? California courts have established the fine for the death of one endangered Golden Eagle by a wind tower as $500,000.

Mass Audubon is in a position to profit by counting bird carcasses, "monitoring," while attempting to "solve" this problem; the industry term for this is "mitigation," if Cape Wind is permitted and construction begins.