The Great Plains region, often described as the Saudi Arabia of wind energy, has caught the eye of so many wind developers that the federal government is launching an extensive environmental analysis of the alternative energy source.

The review is being fueled by the competing demands of habitat protection and energy exploitation in the Upper Great Plains, where some of the nation's largest tracts of intact native prairie and densest concentrations of wetlands are found.

The region involved - eastern Nebraska, western Iowa and Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Montana - is home to some of the most productive water fowl habitat in the nation and thus is important to birders and hunters across the country.

About 460 megawatts of wind power have been tapped or are committed in the Upper Great Plains, and more than 13,500 megawatts have been proposed or are under review, according to the Western Area Power Administration. According to industry estimates, one megawatt of wind energy generates enough electricity to power 225 to 300 households.

"There is going to be a lot of development across these areas, and that does give you pause," said Scott Stephens, director of conservation planning for the Great Plains Region of Ducks Unlimited. "Right now there is a lot of uncertainty, but I think we're heading down the right road in trying to understand this."

Ducks Unlimited is assisting with the study, which will be conducted over the next two years by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Western Area Power Administration.

The study will be restricted to the approximately 2.5 million acres of land - mostly in the Dakotas - where the wildlife service has easements set up to restrict a land's use while keeping it in private ownership.

However, because that involves such a large amount of land, the study constitutes "the first really comprehensive review of wind development in the Upper Great Plains," said Lloyd Jones, refuge coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Large-scale wind farms traditionally have raised concerns because of their potential to kill or alter the behavior of birds and change the aesthetics of a landscape.

On the other hand, they are gaining in popularity as a green energy source and because of tax advantages to businesses and the money that landowners can make by leasing property to wind developers.

Those leases are creating competition for land that the government and conservation organizations want to preserve through easements and the restrictions they impose.

Stephens said landowners want to be assured that they will be allowed to develop their wind rights if they sign a conservation easement.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, Jones said, has allowed a handful of wind farms to be developed on land with easements.

Thus far, he said, the wind projects have been reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This analysis will allow the agencies to examine the cumulative impact of numerous wind farms.

The study is intended to eliminate some uncertainty by giving people a better idea of where and how wind farms can be developed. On the other hand, it will not eliminate the need for site-specific environmental reviews, Jones said.

The next step is a series of three meetings next week at which federal officials will take suggestions from the public about what needs to be studied.

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Federal officials will host meetings Sept. 30 in Sioux Falls, S.D.; Oct. 1 in Bismarck, N.D.; and Oct. 2 in Billings, Mont.

On the Web: Upper Great Plains Wind Energy