American Bird Conservancy: Hundreds of thousands of birds could be collateral damage of bigger wind turbines

Posted: Saturday, May 30, 2015 12:15 am

BY MICHAEL PARR | 2 comments

When the Department of Energy released a report last week championing the construction of larger, more-powerful wind turbines, the wind industry unsurprisingly greeted the news with enthusiasm.

By extending the “hub-height” of turbines up to 360 feet, the chief executive of the American Wind Energy Association said, wind energy could expand to all 50 states.

Less ardent was the association’s response to well-documented concerns over the half-million birds that die each year from collisions with existing turbines: Some migrating birds, a spokesman said, fly too high to be harmed by rotor blades.

Indeed. Some birds do fly very high in the sky. But far more travel at the very altitudes that would put them at greatest risk of colliding with these taller turbines. The risk is especially high during spring and fall, when migrating birds take to the skies in billions, many traveling vast distances between their wintering and breeding grounds.

A new report this month from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls into question the wind industry’s assertion that birds fly well above wind turbines’ rotor blades. Using radar, researchers examined fall migration at two locations in Michigan. They found that the greatest density of birds and bats migrating at night occurred from 300 to 500 feet above ground. That’s almost directly at hub-height for the new generation of giant turbines.

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Leading bird organisation petitions US government to regulate the wind industry

American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has filed a formal petition with the US Department of the Interior (DOI) calling for new regulations governing the impacts of wind energy projects on migratory birds to be established.

The US wind industry is now operating under “voluntary” instead of mandatory regulatory guidelines.

The ABC petition supports “Bird-Smart” wind energy, which requires independent, science-based risk assessment leading to careful siting; effective mitigation; independent, transparent post-construction monitoring of bird kills; and compensation if public trust resources are being taken.

Bird-Smart wind energy is designed to reduce and redress any unavoidable bird mortality and habitat loss.

“This petition includes new information that further makes the case for wind industry regulation,” says Dr Michael Hutchins, the National Coordinator of ABC’s Bird Smart Wind Energy Campaign.

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Bird conservation group challenges feds over wind farm eagle deaths

Published May 02, 2014

FoxNews.com

One of the nation's leading bird conservation groups plans to sue the Obama administration over a federal regulation that allows wind energy companies to obtain 30-year permits to kill eagles without prosecution by the government.

The American Bird Conservancy on Wednesday announced its intent to file the lawsuit, arguing the Department of the Interior violated federal laws when it promulgated the regulation it says sanctions the killing of bald and golden eagles. 

A wind farm in Colorado is shown here. (AP Photo)

"The rule lacks a firm foundation in scientific justification and was generated without the benefit of a full assessment of its impacts on eagle populations,” said Michael Hutchins, National Coordinator of ABC's Bird Smart Wind Energy Campaign.

The Obama administration announced in December it would allow companies to seek authorization to kill and harm bald and golden eagles for up to 30 years without penalty in a bid to balance the environmental trade-offs of green energy. 

The Interior Department rule provides legal protection for the lifespan of wind farms and other projects if companies obtain permits and make efforts to avoid killing protected birds.

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Arizona water pumping decision threatens millions of birds in Globally Important Bird Area

San Pedro area is extremely important to many bird species including the South-western Willow Flycatcher. 

May 2013. American Bird Conservancy (ABC), one of the nation's leading bird conservation groups, has called on Arizona Governor Janice Brewer to overturn the decision by the Arizona Department of Water Resources that approved a groundwater pumping plan that runs the risk of drying a southern Arizona river, the San Pedro, part of which was formally designated in 1995 as the nation's first Globally Important Bird Area and remains today a critical stopover point for millions of migrating birds.

The letter from ABC Vice President for Conservation Advocacy Darin Schroeder asked Gov. Brewer to "...exercise your gubernatorial authority and reverse this ill-considered approval by your administration's Department of Water Resources to effectively drain the San Pedro River in order to support the unsustainable growth of Sierra Vista."

Substantial threat to millions of migratory birds

The letter conveyed that ABC had thoroughly reviewed the Pueblo Del Sol Water Company's groundwater pumping plan and "concluded it poses a serious and substantial threat to millions of migratory birds, many of which are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. We are particularly concerned that the groundwater pumping would negatively impact the designated Critical Habitat for the South-western Willow Flycatcher, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act."

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Arizona Water Pumping Decision Threatens Millions of Birds, Group Charges

EDIA RELEASE

Contact: Robert Johns, 202-234-7181 ext.210, Email click here

(Washington, D.C., May 3, 2013) American Bird Conservancy (ABC), one of the nation’s leading bird conservation groups, has called on Arizona Governor Janice Brewer to overturn the decision by the Arizona Department of Water Resources that approved a groundwater pumping plan that runs the risk of drying a southern Arizona river, the San Pedro, part of which was formally designated in 1995 as the nation’s first Globally Important Bird Area and remains today a critical stopover point for millions of migrating birds.

The May 3, 2013 letter from ABC Vice President for Conservation Advocacy Darin Schroeder asked Gov. Brewer to “...exercise your gubernatorial authority and reverse this ill-considered approval by your administration’s Department of Water Resources to effectively drain the San Pedro River in order to support the unsustainable growth of Sierra Vista.”

The letter conveyed that ABC had thoroughly reviewed the Pueblo Del Sol Water Company’s groundwater pumping plan and “concluded it poses a serious and substantial threat to millions of migratory birds, many of which are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. We are particularly concerned that the groundwater pumping would negatively impact the designated Critical Habitat for the Southwestern Willow Flycatcher, which is protected under the Endangered Species Act.”

The San Pedro is one of the last major undammed rivers in the American Southwest, Schroeder said, and exhibits a remarkably intact riparian ecosystem. An approximately 40-mile reach of the upper San Pedro River between the international boundary and St. David is encompassed by the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (SPRNCA), one of only two RNCAs in the United States. The BLM has also opposed the water-pumping plan.

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PVC pipes staking West mine claims killing birds

The Associated Press 

Posted: 05/03/2013 09:19:26 AM PDT 

Updated: 05/03/2013 08:23:31 PM PDT 

ELKO, Nev.—Wildlife officials and conservationists in Nevada say they're making progress knocking down the white plastic pipes that miners traditionally have used to stake their claims, because such markers can become death traps for hundreds of thousands of small birds that get stuck inside. 

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management estimates there are more than 3.4 million of the white polyvinyl chloride pipes sticking out of the ground across the West—more than 1 million in Nevada alone in a 2011 survey. 

The American Bird Conservancy, Nevada Department of Wildlife, BLM and several mining companies have been tracking and removing the pipes, which have been required since 2009 to be replaced by solid posts under state law in Nevada, the biggest producer of gold in the nation and sixth largest in the world. 

Darin Schroeder of the American Bird Conservancy estimates the PVC markers cause the death of more than a million birds a year nationally. He said small cavity-nesting birds mistake the openings for an ideal home, but once inside are doomed by the smooth sides of the pipe with a narrow diameter that keeps them from climbing or flying out. 

Nevada wildlife department biologists Pete Bradley and Christy Klinger have been at the forefront of organizing post removals since researchers started documenting the deaths in the 1980s. 

Continued: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_23165191/pvc-pipes-staking-west-mine-claims-killing-birds

Bird group calls for halt to widely applied insecticide

Chuck Raasch, USA TODAY7:56p.m. EDT March 18, 2013

American Bird Conservancy says EPA underestimated the risk of this insecticide

Industry scientist says studies show no ill effects on birds

EPA re-evaluating registration of pesticide

The American Bird Conservancy is calling for a ban on using one of the globe's most widely used classes of insecticides in seed treatments and for a suspension of all other uses, pending an independent review of its impact on birds and other wildlife.

The Bird Conservancy, one of the nation's most active bird-conservation groups, released a 97-page report Monday that says that independent studies of the damage to birds and aquatic ecosystems they depend upon for food raise "significant environmental concerns" and that the Environmental Protection Agency has been too lenient in allowing the use of this class of insecticides, called neonicotinoids.

Their possible role in the decline of honeybee populations in the USA and Europe has spurred intense debate among scientists, wildlife advocates and manufacturers, and the EPA is re-evaluating its registration of this class of insecticide.

The EPA will "carefully consider the study results and conclusions cited in this report," and the agency's review "is not limited to impact on bees," said Jim Jones, acting assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

He said the EPA "has accelerated the comprehensive re-evaluation of these pesticides in the registration review program due to stakeholder concern about the environmental impacts of neonicotinoid pesticides."

Manufacturers say the American Bird Conservancy report depends on suspect science, and a ban would be destructive to global agricultural production. Defenders say that neonicotinoids were created as safer alternatives to the pesticide class they replaced about 20 years ago.

Neonicotinoids have been in use for about two decades. The insecticides are sprayed or used to coat seeds, such as corn, to protect crops and control insects around the globe.

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/18/birdsinsecticides/1996271/

Leading Bird Group Wants New DOI Secretary To Review Possible Revised Rule Weakening Eagle Protections For Wind Industry

In a letter to the U.S. Department of Interior, American Bird Conservancy (ABC) called on the agency to suspend further consideration of a revised rule that would weaken protections provided to eagles pursuant to the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, by allowing private companies to apply for an unprecedented 30-year permit to kill these iconic species.

ABC, one of the nation’s leading bird conservation groups, instead called for the rule to be shelved until Sally Jewell, President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Interior, has had time to fully review the proposal and evaluate its potential long-term impacts on eagle populations.

“The public places a high value on both Bald and Golden Eagles, two species that have inspired awe, pride, and patriotism in America’s citizens for generations. The Bald Eagle is America’s national symbol and was only removed from the endangered species list in 2007. Thus, this important and highly controversial decision should not be made without the full participation and careful consideration of the new Secretary of the Interior,” said Darin Schroeder, ABC’s vice president of Conservation Advocacy.

The new, far weaker, version of the eagle protection rule was drafted after requests from the wind energy industry, and represents a curious reversal of a FWS decision in 2009. At that time the USFWS wrote, “…the rule limits permit tenure to five years or less because factors may change over a longer period of time such that a take authorized much earlier would later be incompatible with the preservation of the Bald Eagle or the Golden Eagle.”

Read more:  http://www.chattanoogan.com/2013/2/19/244769/Leading-Bird-Group-Wants-New-DOI.aspx

Bird group says ND wind farm needs tougher review

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bird advocacy group says a proposed North Dakota wind farm should undergo a stricter environmental review of threats posed to the endangered whooping crane.

The Washington-based American Bird Conservancy said Friday that it was among 76 groups calling for the tougher review of the Merricourt Wind Power Project.

The group says the coalition is asking the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to prepare an environmental impact statement for the project instead of an abbreviated environmental assessment. The conservancy says the 100 turbine project is planned in a key migration route for many birds, including endangered whooping cranes and threatened piping plovers.

Project developer enXco had originally planned to sell the wind power to Xcel Energy, which dropped out in 2011 over potential harm to the two bird species.

http://newsok.com/bird-group-says-nd-wind-farm-needs-tougher-review/article/feed/498425

Imperiled Birds To Benefit From Land Purchase In Key Peruvian National Reserve

Friday, November 30, 2012 - by American Bird Convervancy

The critically endangered Iquitos Gnatcatcher, and the vulnerable Allpahuayo Antbird and Mishana Tyrannulet are three of the bird species that will benefit from the purchase of more than 1,100 acres of private inholdings within Peru’s Allpahuayo Mishana National Reserve by ProNaturaleza (a leading Peruvian conservation organization) in collaboration with American Bird Conservancy (ABC).

SERNANP - the Peruvian agency in charge of protected areas - has now published three resolutions accepting the donation of 55 pieces of land totalling more than 2,370 acres (including 1,270 acres previously purchased by ProNaturaleza and ABC) as part of the Allpahuayo Mishana National Reserve. The reserve, which is located only 15 miles from the city of Iquitos in northern Peru, contains rare white-sand forests called varillales and is home to 20 species of neotropical migrant birds as well as a variety of rare and unique plants and animals.

Continued:  http://www.chattanoogan.com/2012/11/30/239595/Imperiled-Birds-To-Benefit-From-Land.aspx

Major Bird Conservation Group Urges Ban On Five Snakes

Wednesday, November 28, 2012 - by American Bird Convervancy

One of the country’s leading conservation groups wants Congress to ban imports of reticulated pythons, green anacondas, boa constrictors, and two other constrictor snakes that pose a major threat to native wildlife. In a letter sent the U.S. House Resource Committee, American Bird Conservancy says these snakes should be added to the list of “injurious wildlife” regulated by the Lacey Act, one of America’s oldest conservation statutes designed to protect wildlife from illegal trade. The change would make importing or transporting these snakes over state lines a federal offence.

“This bill (H.R. 511 –To Prohibit the Importation of Various Injurious Species of Constrictor Snakes) is necessary to prevent the further spread of these aggressive, invasive predators,” said Darin Schroeder, Vice President for Conservation Advocacy at ABC. “It’s well-established that these snakes are highly adaptable to new environments, and that they consume a wide variety of prey, including mammal, amphibian, lizard, and threatened and endangered bird species.”

Read on:  http://www.chattanoogan.com/2012/11/28/239456/Major-Bird-Conservation-Group-Urges.aspx