Alternative energy sources, such as solar and wind, are key to a better environment. In order to move away from fossil fuels that cause climate change and contribute to human health problems, we need these alternatives.
When you scale up alternative energy sources, though, you can run into vexing conservation problems. One example is the bird mortality that can be caused by large wind turbines. Currently, it is estimated that we lose up to four-hundred-thousand birds per year to wind turbines. That’s many fewer than are killed by cats or in collisions with large buildings, but it’s still a lot of deaths.
According to the American Bird Conservancy, by 2030, a hundred-thousand wind turbines in the U.S. could cause the deaths of a million birds each year by collisions.
The Conservancy calls for “Bird-Smart” wind energy. This includes siting wind farms away from migratory bottlenecks and key nesting areas, burying transmission lines wherever possible, and restoring habitat disrupted by construction.
Most collisions occur at night, when birds migrate in large numbers. Research at the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology is identifying nocturnal migrants acoustically, recording and identifying their flight calls. The hope is that this research can help inform the placement of wind turbines and identify times of year when turbines could be shut down overnight to ensure safe passage for the migrants.
Wind farms and migrating birds can co-exist. But it will take some careful planning, and now is the time to put that into place.
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Web links
American Bird Conservancy’s policy statement on wind farms
“Birds that Fly by Night,” Living Bird magazine
Photo, taken on August 19, 2009ake, courtesy of the Idaho National Laboratory via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.