The noise and vibration from heavy equipment has been known to frighten emus to death, Debi VanTassel said in a recent interview. She wonders what living near a wind turbine will be like. Ms. VanTassel has another worry, though. Her husband is an epileptic who may have grand mal seizures. They can't have wallpaper in their home because the patterns could seem to come alive and bother Mr. VanTassel.

The greater prairie chicken of eastern Kansas has been declining with the encroachment of man. Roads have broken up vast rangeland, as well as oil wells, wind farms and cell phone towers. Cedars and other trees and shrubs have invaded their territory. Suburban development also is a factor as a growing number of residents buy small parcels of land to build a home.

Wind Farm near Keyser is a favorable site for turbines based on wildlife considerations, according to extensive studies conducted by environmental consultants retained by the developer, US WindForce. That was the message from Monday night's meeting of the Community Advisory Panel, delivered by Jennie Henthorn of Henthron Environmental Consultants.

Commissioners appointed by Hurunui District Council have rejected a wind farm planned for a "nationally outstanding" North Canterbury landscape. ...MainPower planned to build a wind farm worth up to $200 million on Mt Cass, east of Waipara. Commissioners Paul Rogers, Paul Thomas and Dean Chrystal said a wind farm on the ridge between Mt Cass and Totara Peak would be "inappropriate" because it would degrade an outstanding natural feature of national significance. Environmental groups called the decision a win for conservation.

The Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission recently voted to secure millions of dollars for conservation projects with OG&E and Tulsa-based NatureWorks as well as set important hunting regulations and dates for new seasons on black bear, antelope, elk and others. At its April meeting, the Commission approved a memorandum of agreement with OG&E. Through the agreement, OG&E will invest $3.75 million to help offset the impact of the "OU Spirit" wind farm on lesser prairie chickens and other wildlife in northwest Oklahoma.

The Chestnut-collared Longspur winters in New Mexico and Texas, including parts of the Big Country, before migrating north to breed for the summer. The bird, however, has suffered a steep population decline, as have other species that follow the same migration pattern, according to a recent government report. The federal report says various factors - including energy production of all types, such as wind farms - have contributed to a 40-year decline in the national bird population.

Its aim is to find out the migration routes, the heights and speeds at which the whooper swans fly, and the effects of weather conditions on the swans' flight patterns. This data will then be analysed in relation to existing offshore wind farms positioned in the Greater Wash and East Irish Sea areas, as well as potential wind farm sites.

Plans by two electric utilities to build 1,150 miles of new high-voltage transmission lines across southern Idaho and Wyoming are on schedule, with a draft environmental impact statement on the work expected late this summer. ...Idaho Power began work on a series of environmental studies that will provide crucial information for the draft document.

Developers of a proposed 185-turbine wind farm and the Bureau of Land Management are continuing to gather information on the effects the farm would have on the sagebrush-filled desert southwest of Rogerson. The 425-megawatt China Mountain Wind Energy Project would be scattered across a 30,700-acre area. Though a draft environmental impact statement on the project is still a year away from release, the BLM this week launched a 30-day comment period on whether three meteorological towers should be placed in the area of the future farm. Several other towers already sit in the area.

Concern has been raised over the possible impact on wildlife if a proposed windfarm is developed near Huntly. Swedish energy firm Vattenfall is behind plans for a 22-turbine windfarm at Clashindarroch Forest, between Dufftown and Rhynie. ...Fears over the effect the development could have on wildlife, including birds and wildcats, have been voiced by local stalker and game processor Steve Wright.

To his chagrin, some of Mr. Myers's fellow environmentalists are helping power companies pinpoint the best sites for solar-power technology. The goal of his former allies is to combat climate change by harnessing the desert's solar-rich terrain, reducing the region's reliance on carbon-emitting fuels. Mr. Myers is indignant. "How can you say you're going to blade off hundreds of thousands of acres of earth to preserve the Earth?" he said. As the Obama administration puts development of geothermal, wind and solar power on a fast track, the environmental movement finds itself torn between fighting climate change and a passion for saving special places.

Linton Zoo could be forced to close should a proposed windfarm just over a kilometre away be given the go-ahead, according to zookeeper Kim Simmons. She is worried the animals at her zoo, including lemurs and big cats, could be affected by the infrasound - sound lower in frequency than can be heard by the human ear - produced by the proposed eight 120-metre tall turbines.

A century ago prairie chickens may have been the most common wild bird on the High Plains. Today's lesser prairie chicken population is thought to be just 3 percent of what it was a century ago. Wildlife experts say the reason is simple: native grasslands are disappearing and without the habitat they need, prairie chickens are dying off. ...And now wind turbines threaten to blanket parts of the grassland.

As the Obama administration pursues more homegrown energy sources, a new government report faults energy production of all types - wind, ethanol and mountaintop coal mining - for contributing to steep drops in bird populations. The first-of-its-kind government report chronicles a four-decade decline in many of the country's bird populations and provides many reasons for it, from suburban sprawl to the spread of exotic species to global warming.

Wind farms occasionally kill birds and their construction disrupts marine life, a new broad survey shows. But the results of the report will have no immediate effect on New Jersey's massive offshore wind projects, state officials said Monday. The 312-page report by the state Department of Environmental Protection offers few details on the overall impact of the almost 300 wind turbines slated to be built off the coast of Atlantic City.

As several wind power projects finish their supplemental environmental impact statements, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has sent out reminders that projects may need state permits for accidental deaths of threatened or endangered species. Region 6 Wildlife Manager William H. Gordon sent letters, dated Jan. 27, to the towns of Cape Vincent and Clayton addressing BP Alternative Energy's Cape Vincent Wind Farm, Acciona's St. Lawrence Wind Farm and Iberdrola's Horse Creek Wind Farm.

The major ecological concern when five wind turbines were built here several years ago was whether they would kill migrating birds. They have, including two ospreys and a peregrine falcon. But as it turns out, it isn't the death of birds that is drawing the most attention. The real casualty is bats. The New Jersey Audubon Society is halfway through a three-year study on the impact of the turbines, and so far twice as many bats as birds have died.

The 500 ducks that died in the Alberta oilsands pale in comparison to the thousands of birds killed by cats or by crashing into Toronto office towers or flying into windmills, says Conservative MP Brian Jean. ...At the committee, he questioned federal officials about "how do you balance" 500 ducks who died in an oilsands tailings pond with 6,000 killed annually on Toronto skyscrapers and 200,000 caught in wind turbines.

Consultants for the state Department of Environmental Protection drafted the 312-page report, contending wind farms may limit recreational and commercial fishing and boating, disrupt marine life because of the current running through large electrical lines and temporarily destroy fish habitats as they are constructed. But they also said the turbine infrastructure eventually would act as artificial habitat for some fish, improving their survival.

The draft environmental impact statement for the expansion of Kaheawa wind farm is open for public comment. Since the project is next to the existing farm overlooking Maalaea, much of the information parallels the studies done for the project that went into operation in 2006. The expansion, proposed for 333 acres of state land, would be smaller than Kaheawa I: 14 1.5-megawatt towers, compared with 20 currently in operation.