Will wind energy farms with hundreds of turbine towers and blades reaching up more than 100 meters have an impact on this area's international reputation as a corridor for migrating birds and monarch butterflies? That could turn out to be the biggest question wind farm developers have to answer as they prepare to unveil local sites for their multimillion dollar projects.

Nesting birds have developers Alberta Wind Energy Corporation back before the Municipal District's planning commission seeking to relocate three turbines on their proposed wind farm near the Oldman River Dam. Arthur Lee from the company says that a pair of nesting ferruginous hawks and prairie falcons have been spotted close to three of the proposed turbines. Alberta Sustainable Resources guidelines recommend that wind turbines are located at least 500 metres away from nest sites. As a result, Lee says that AWEC is looking for permission to relocate the turbines some 400 metres from their original sites.

SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. (CP) - The city of Summerside plans to complete a bird migration survey in coming months as part of the environmental assessment for its proposed wind farm. Greg Gaudet, chair of municipal services, explained the study would provide supplemental information to the original assessment document prepared for the project that is proposed to be built near the Prince Edward Island city. The information will also be used to make recommendations on how to construct the wind farm so it has minimal environmental impact.

Wind turbines shouldn't be allowed near Point Pelee National Park, Holiday Beach or the south shore of Essex County, Ron Elliott, co-ordinator of the Windsor Essex County Environment Committee, says. "They do have the potential if they're in the wrong places to be an environmental disaster for birds. There's no denying that. And they're going to be around for 20 years, so they have to be located right," Elliott said, adding the "whole south shore is essentially one big migration route."

The Mexican government is preparing a big wind energy project, but peasant farmers and bird experts aren’t too happy about it. The government’s aim is for wind-generated electricity — which now accounts for just 0.005 percent of the energy generated in Mexico — to reach six percent by 2030. The project has the blessing of some big corporations and environmentalists. Achieving that goal involves setting up more than 3,000 turbines in Mexico’s windiest zone, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the southern state of Oaxaca, as well as several other wind farms around the country with dozens of turbines each. But erecting the windmills, tall towers with a 27-metre blade span, requires negotiating with landowners, most of whom are farmers. Some have complained that they were taken advantage of when the first wind farm was created in 1994. Meanwhile, ornithologiests experts warn that many bird species are at risk of being killed by the giant blades, which could cause an environmental chain reaction across the continent, because various birds are migratory. “Everything is bent towards facilitating the wind farms, but there is not much interest in the birds, which in the long term could bring much broader problems,” RaGBPl Ortiz-Pulido, spokesman for the Mexican office of BirdLife International, told Tierramerica.

Crab fishermen don’t want to get pushed off their fishing ground by a wind energy project in Hecate Strait. Geoff Gould, director for Area A Crab Association says crab fishermen are competing with Nai Kun Wind Development for the same 550 square kilometre piece of real estate in Hecate Strait.

A proposed windfarm in the Karso del Sur Important Bird Area (IBA), Puerto Rico, could wipe out five percent of the global population of the Critically Endangered Puerto Rican Nightjar Caprimulgus noctitherus. The proposal, which has been strongly condemned by Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña (SOPI, BirdLife in Puerto Rico), is the latest in a series of windfarm proposals around the world which threaten bird populations of conservation importance.

Local crab fishermen are concerned about the impact that the Naikun Wind Farm proposed for the Hecate Strait will have on their fishery, and want to hear more specifics from the company. “We only fish a fraction of Area A because the crab seem to like it where it is shallow. The Haida Energy Field is almost dead on the area that we crab…We have told Naikun that if they want to run towers in Hecate Strait then go for it, but don’t put it where the crabs are,” said Jeff Gould with the Area A Crab Association.

The caribou are major, albeit silent, figures in a growing debate over whether to reroute a proposed massive transmission corridor that would carry electricity from Manitoba to the Toronto area, so that it could also tie in to hydro and wind sources in Northern Ontario.

A surge of opposition has diverted a plan to put wind-powered turbines on the Point Pelee peninsula. Boris Vondrus of Advantis Energy confirmed on Monday his company will respect the wishes expressed quite passionately at a Saturday night public meeting and look for a more bird-friendly location for the turbines. “We think we can find a solution a lot of people will be positively pleased with.”

The Quebec Environmental Public Hearing Board has rejected a $350-million wind power proposal from a Toronto company that wanted to build an expansive farm in the province’s northeastern region. The board, known by its French acronym, BAPE, gave the thumbs down to Skypower’s plans, which would include the construction of 114 windmills in four communities bordering the St Lawrence seaway, near Rivière-du-Loup. The board, which held several hearings on the project, concluded Thursday that the turbines would ruin a picturesque view, threaten the region’s natural and wildlife heritage and threaten the agricultural economy.

Preliminary plans to erect a wind turbine just east of Port Stanley met with opposition from local bird enthusiasts at a public meeting Wednesday at the Port Stanley arena.

Migratory birds and bats bludgeoned to death in flight. The movement of ungulates such as elk and threatened caribou disrupted. Wild wind-swept mountain tops -- the 'Beautiful' in B.C. -- despoiled by massive industrial infrastructure. Sound like green energy? These are among the concerns being raised over wind energy, even as the province's Environmental Assessment Office gives the green light to Dokie Wind Energy Inc. to build B.C.'s first wind farm near Chetwynd. "We still have concerns," confirmed Linda Sullivan, senior program officer for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, which has been working with B.C. officials. "Where there is wind, there are birds. There is a greater number of migratory birds in that particular area."

University of Calgary researchers are trying to understand why hundreds of bats are dying each year in Pincher Creek, inexplicably drawn to wind turbines. Robert Barclay, a University of Calgary professor who heads up the bat study at the Summerview Wind Farm in Pincher Creek, Alta., believes bats may be attracted by the sound of turbines or simply don't use their sonar when they migrate.

P.E.I. birdwatchers are celebrating a victory. The provincial government has agreed to move several wind turbines away from East Point.

Ulrich Watermann has been keeping his high-resolution binoculars trained on the bald eagles since they returned to their old home atop the white pine a few weeks ago.

Last week, the provincial government announced an open invitation to wind power in Manitoba — an invitation that comes before concrete plans to use the increased renewable energy.