facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts Windaction http://www.windaction.org/articles/c38+111?theme=atom Xarayar 2006-06-12T02:16:27Z .36421 2012-10-30T10:27:36Z 2012-10-30T10:27:36Z

Miles away, wind turbines sat motionless in the windless night. Their spinning blades can be deadly to bats, bursting capillaries in their lungs before the blades hit their tiny bodies. Three Wyoming bats are particularly susceptible when they migrate from summer to winter ranges. Keinath and Abernethy were looking for bats to tell them which, if any, species called the area home.

.36420 2012-10-30T10:24:50Z 2012-10-30T10:24:50Z

Of Wyoming's 15 resident bat species, three of them are most susceptible to the deadly effects of wind turbines: the hoary bat, the silver-haired bat and the eastern red bat. They are Wyoming's only tree-roosting bats, said Douglas Keinath, senior zoologist with the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database.

.34033 2012-01-08T00:47:32Z 2012-01-08T00:47:32Z

Hard winters usually limit animals to certain areas where wind blows snow away and food is available. If those are the same places where turbines exist, and elk or antelope avoid turbines, it could hurt the winter survival rate of the herds, Beck said. "It is an area of research that we don't have a lot of information on.

.32549 2011-07-21T13:41:30Z 2011-07-21T13:41:30Z

After reviewing population trends, hunter-harvest reports and licenses sales from the two states over the last 30 years, wildlife biologists concluded that oil and gas drilling, wind farms, agricultural practices and other human encroachments are slicing and dicing critical habitat the animals have historically relied upon to survive.

.26945 2010-04-24T13:03:07Z 2010-04-24T13:03:07Z

Wyoming will monitor the wind energy industry's effects on wildlife through guidelines unanimously approved by the Game and Fish Commission on Friday. The commission resisted calls from some landowners and some industry representatives who wanted to delay approval of the 65-page document because of technical issues and concerns about private property rights.

.26777 2010-04-18T17:36:55Z 2010-04-18T17:36:55Z

The developer of a proposed southern Wyoming wind farm is seeking federal approval of a conservation deal that could help the project move forward in an area that's also home to sage grouse. The Power Company of Wyoming wants to build a 1,000-turbine wind farm on part of a 486-square-mile cattle ranch near Rawlins. Denver-based Anschutz Corp. owns the Power Company and the ranch, which is a mixture of private and federal lands.

.26631 2010-04-11T18:50:35Z 2010-04-11T18:50:35Z

The Power Company of Wyoming, an affiliate of Denver-based Anschutz (AN'-shoots) Corp., wants to build a 1,000-turbine wind farm on a ranch near Rawlins. But the company faces the challenge of building the project in an area that overlaps with sage grouse habitat.

.26524 2010-04-04T18:22:07Z 2010-04-04T18:22:07Z

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department wants to discourage the construction of wind turbines close to water, forests and other wildlife habitat, but the agency's latest draft recommendations offer developers a bit more flexibility depending on the specifics of a site. The department recently released a new draft of wildlife protection recommendations for wind developers.

.26004 2010-03-06T13:38:36Z 2010-03-06T13:38:36Z

The finding shows the government is willing to protect sage grouse but not willing to do what's necessary, said Jon Marvel, executive director of the Hailey, Idaho-based Western Watersheds Project. "None of the actions proposed to date are mandatory, and that undermines the commitment for improving conditions for sage grouse," Marvel said.

.25968 2010-03-06T07:21:15Z 2010-03-06T07:21:15Z

Wildlife conservationists and energy developers alike found some encouragement in Friday's announcement that the sage grouse won't be listed as a threatened or endangered species. Many agreed that such a listing would have had a chilling effect on the agriculture and minerals industries, which are the foundation of Wyoming's economy.

.25964 2010-03-06T06:57:30Z 2010-03-06T06:57:30Z

The iconic sage grouse that once roamed the western U.S. plains in great numbers ...will not be listed under the Endangered Species Act, but the department will put special emphasis on preserving the chicken-sized bird on lands where oil companies want to drill and wind companies want to erect their massive turbines.

.25961 2010-03-06T06:41:52Z 2010-03-06T06:41:52Z

The Interior Department said Friday that the greater sage grouse, a dweller of the high plains of the American West, was facing extinction but would not be designated an endangered species for now. Yet the decision in essence reverses a 2004 determination by the Bush administration that the sage grouse did not need protection, a decision that a federal court later ruled was tainted by political tampering with the Interior Department's scientific conclusions.

.25739 2010-02-21T20:37:33Z 2010-02-21T20:37:33Z

A lot of Westerners are watching whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is about to pursue Endangered Species Act protection for the greater sage grouse. A finding is expected by week's end and the oil and gas, livestock and wind energy industries _ to name the bigger interests concerned _ all have an enormous stake in whatever the agency decides.

.25610 2010-02-13T14:22:02Z 2010-02-13T14:22:02Z

Idaho and the federal government have signed an agreement that offers incentive and protection for ranchers and landowners who voluntarily take conservation steps to improve the plight of the sage grouse. ...Todd Tucci, attorney for Advocates for the West, said the bigger challenge is dealing with sage grouse habitat on public land, where wind energy development, oil and natural gas drilling and cattle grazing pose thornier policy questions.

.24970 2010-01-06T02:12:10Z 2010-01-06T02:12:10Z

Efforts to protect an iconic bird could disrupt oil, natural gas and wind energy development in the U.S. West and add to the Democratic Party's green woes ahead of the 2010 congressional elections. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until Feb. 26 to decide whether or not to list the greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act. This may prove politically charged as it comes in the face of opposition from energy interests and state governments who fear it will hurt economic development.

.24940 2010-01-05T12:51:58Z 2010-01-05T12:51:58Z

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is directing its Wyoming offices to consider certain restrictions for oil and gas drilling, new wind turbines and other types of development in sage grouse habitat. In many cases, the BLM could limit drilling to one well pad per square mile. Also, the BLM will prohibit many activities during sage grouse breeding season each spring.

.24935 2010-01-05T03:22:18Z 2010-01-05T03:22:18Z

Wind energy development is "functionally precluded" in about 20 percent of Wyoming under new Bureau of Land Management guidelines laid out on Monday to protect a threatened bird, the governor's office said. ...the reality going forward will be that new developments will have to be relegated to the one oil pad per square mile."

.24646 2009-12-17T07:43:26Z 2009-12-17T07:43:26Z

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is telling its field offices to mark certain fences and guy wires to make them more visible to sage grouse, sharp-tailed grouse and lesser prairie chickens. Studies have shown that barbed-wire fences can be deadly when these bird species fly into the fences without seeing them

.22926 2009-08-31T02:05:40Z 2009-08-31T02:05:40Z

Not much is certain about the future of sage grouse in Wyoming - including the birds' undecided status as a potentially endangered species and their possible role in curbing oil, gas and even wind energy development. But based on a number of sage grouse habitat improvement projects in development across the Bighorn Basin, one thing is certain: Boosting the bird's prospects is a slow and painstaking process.

.22909 2009-08-30T03:03:32Z 2009-08-30T03:03:32Z

Brian Rutledge, executive director of Audubon Wyoming out of Laramie, said golden eagles, along with other raptors, are struggling in light of the energy development around the state. Power poles are being erected in areas of the sagebrush sea ...and now raptors can perch there and pick off sage grouse. ...He said a rise in wind energy also threatens the bird.