Unfortunately, migratory bats are being killed by what Carter calls "wildlife in a blender," or wind turbines. "People call this green energy," he said recently to a crowd of bird lovers at Kennedy Library. "I call it red energy. I call them all kinds of terrible things." Not meaning to downplay the threat of wind farms to birds, but bird mortality at a wind farm is measured in dozens or hundreds, Carter said, while bat fatalities are measured in the thousands. "A single wind farm can kill 4,000 bats in a single season," he said.

Impact on Bats Indiana

"Animals at night fly right into them," Carter said. "Imagine them flying at night 300 to 400 feet off the ground so they don't bump into a tree. Now wind turbines are in their fly space." Which is why USFWS required NextEra to increase the cut-in speed to 7 meters per second, from a half hour before sunset to a half hour after sunrise starting on July 15 and ending on Oct. 1 of each year.

Impact on Bats Impact on Wildlife Indiana

Julie Peretin, a spokeswoman for the Tippecanoe County group RESITE Now, said members are concerned about the presence of the federally endangered Indiana bat at the site where Invenergy Wind LLC is looking to build a wind farm.

Impact on Bats Indiana

MUNCIE - The discovery last year of a dead bat at the Fowler Ridge Wind Farm northwest of Lafayette was unusual.

Impact on Bats Impact on Wildlife Indiana