The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will publish a notice in the March 13 edition of the Federal Register seeking volunteers to serve on a committee that will offer guidance to the agency on the effects of wind energy on wildlife. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Nicholas Throckmorton said that he expects the committee to be formed by summer or early fall 2007. "The Fish and Wildlife Service is looking, specifically, for experts on bird, bat and bat interactions, as well as habitat issues associated with wind turbines," Throckmorton told SNL Energy. "We are looking for around 20 volunteers from state, tribal and federal agencies on both the wildlife and wind turbine design side ... as well as wind turbine businesses, engineers, site selectors, etc." Throckmorton said one of the main thrusts of the committee will be to identify the big issues facing the siting of wind turbines. The Fish and Wildlife Service issued draft interim voluntary guidelines in July 2003 that were not popular with the wind industry.

Infrared monitoring shows that savvy seabirds steer clear of wind turbines. Uncertainty surrounding wind power's impact on wildlife--particularly the potential for deadly collisions between birds and turbines--has tarnished its image and even delayed some wind farms. Indeed, the first large offshore wind farm proposed for U.S. waters--the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts's Nantucket Sound--has been held up in part by concerns that its 130 turbines could kill thousands of seabirds annually. Now a simple infrared collision-detection system developed by Denmark's National Environmental Research Institute is helping clear the air. The Thermal Animal Detection System (TADS) is essentially a heat-activated infrared video camera that watches a wind turbine around the clock, recording deadly collisions much as a security camera captures crimes. The first results, released this winter as part of a comprehensive $15 million study of Denmark's large offshore wind farms, show seabirds to be remarkably adept at avoiding offshore installations. "There had been suggestions that enormous numbers of birds would be killed," says Robert Furness, a seabird specialist at the University of Glasgow, who chaired the study's scientific advisory panel. "There's a greater feeling now among European politicians that marine wind farms are not going to be a major ecological problem, and therefore going ahead with construction is not going to raise lots of political difficulties."

Despite a recent endorsement from the National Audubon Society and improvements in bird-friendly technology, there is still some opposition to wind power. In a recent article, John Flicker, president of the NAS, told the American Wind Energy Association that Audubon “strongly supports wind power as a clean alternative energy source.” Research showing prospective effects of climate change on bird populations demonstrated a need for prevention, one approach being renewable energy. The NAS has acknowledged the possible advantages of wind, while still encouraging extensive preconstruction research; however organizations such as National Wind Watch and the Humane Society remain skeptical.

Nimby-ism (Notin My Back) is almost understandable when talking about a gas pipeline or an ugly McMansion. But when it comes to environmentally friendly, quiet and- some say- beautiful windmills, an astonishing number of people are saying "no". Melanie Wold asks, "Why? Is it all the dead seagulls?"

Editor's Note: This article appeared in the October 2006 issue of Shattered Magazine. The pdf version is available via the link below.

Is the pursuit of fewer dropped calls leading to more dropping birds? The lights atop communications towers that warn pilots to stay away can have a come-hither effect on birds - killing millions of migrating warblers, thrushes and other species every year. During bad weather, birds can mistake tower lights for the stars they use to navigate. They will circle a tower trancelike, often until they crash into the structure, its guy wires or other birds. Sometimes disoriented birds simply plummet to the ground from exhaustion.

In popular Halloween folklore, vampires are able to transform into bats. And, of course, fiction tells us that one way to kill a vampire, and thus the bat, is with a stake through the heart. But in areas around the United States, a new potential bat killer has emerged - wind turbines.

Details and a registration form are available at the link below for the Wildlife and Wind Energy Conference to be held on Saturday, December 2, 2006 at Kutztown University in Kutztown, PA USA.

Ongoing research in Norway adds weight to the idea that turbines and large birds don't mix.

In addition to the threat of collision, wind generators can also pose a risk to migratory birds and bats, he said. Especially dangerous is wind farm turbine configurations that create a "barrier effect." Airborne animals are more likely to come into peril when trying to pass a wall of turbines, rather than a single turbine or small-scale operation.

But I was sitting at my kitchen table in North Buffalo, far from the wind farms of the Southern Tier, and such distance makes for simple, black-and-white comprehension. There are places in Western New York where wind energy isn’t so clear a choice. Places with names like Perry, Sheldon and Arkwright, rural towns perched atop the high glacial ridges to the east and south of the city, whose landscapes might soon be dominated by hundreds of towering, 400-foot windmills. As wind companies eye their windswept fields and make overtures to local town boards, divisions run deeper and deeper between citizens who disagree on the merits of wind farm development in their backyards. In such locales, the gray areas of wind development come into sharp focus.

Predictions by bat experts that expanded industrial wind farms in West Virginia will increase numbers of disease-carrying mosquitoes and crop-destroying grasshoppers, locusts, and moths are not the only expected ecological consequences of expanded wind farms. Giant wind turbines take an even greater toll on birds, including many endangered species and birds of prey instrumental in controlling rodent populations, says the Heartland Institute.

A 2005 federal study that has so far received little attention warns that oil and gas exploration in the untapped eastern Gulf of Mexico may have a significant negative impact on migratory bird populations.

Editor's Note:While this article does not address wind turbines, it raises significant issues related to the potential adverse impact of off-shore windplants on migratory bird populations.

Soaring on the wings of new wind-turbine technology, tax breaks, and rising fossil fuel costs, the US wind-power growth picture looks great - except to Edward Arnett, a wildlife biologist who sees a dead bat in it - many thousands of dead bats, actually.

The Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service thought it would be a breeze to get interested parties together earlier this month to work out some kinks in its guidelines on how to build wind turbines with minimal harm to bats and birds.

On Tuesday, March 21, 2006, during the 71st North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Columbus, Ohio, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (IAFWA) will host a full-day workshop entitled "Wind Energy Development and Wildlife Management."

In September, a report by the Government Accountability Office found that the federal government offers minimal oversight in approving wind-power plants. The report urged federal officials to take a more active role in weighing the effect of wind power farms on bird and bat deaths

BREWER - As wind power begins to blow into Maine, state regulators on Wednesday considered its potential to squeeze increasingly expensive - and less environmentally friendly - fossil fuels out of the region's energy mix.

BEAR CREEK TWP. – A zoning battle over the use of public land for a potential wind farm project broke down into arguments between those wanting to live without turbines and conserve land and those who want to turn a profit and conserve energy.

(TRENTON) – The Blue Ribbon Panel on Development of Wind Turbine Facilities in Coastal Waters today announced their interim report is publicly available and a public meeting has been scheduled to solicit feedback on the report. Acting Governor Richard J. Codey established the Blue Ribbon Panel by executive order last December. The panel is charged with studying the costs and benefits of developing offshore wind turbines. The interim report represents the progress to date toward meeting Codey’s mandate.

When it comes to Cape Wind Associates’ plan to create a 130-turbine wind farm on Nantucket Sound, environmentalists not only disagree, some can’t even agree as to whether or not there’s a disagreement.