By David Wojick
Every land based wind facility in America has a permit to kill a certain number of eagles every year. What these kill numbers add up to is a secret that should be public information. Is it hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands?
Given these numbers we can decide how to limit them. We also need better data on actual kills so it is time to lift the veil on wind power killing eagles.
First the basics. CFACT collegian Maggie Immen puts the issue well in comments on a proposed Wyoming wind facility. She writes this:
“Wind turbines are a documented threat to bird populations, particularly raptors like golden and bald eagles. Estimates suggest that wind farms kill at least 150,000 birds annually in the U.S. alone. Wyoming, a crucial migratory corridor, is especially vulnerable.
The Rail Tie Wind Project, planned for Albany County, would place turbines dangerously close to golden eagle habitats. Wildlife biologist Mike Lockhart, a Laramie resident, warns that official bird fatality counts are likely underestimated since scavengers quickly remove carcasses before they can be recorded.
Adding to these concerns, federal regulations permit a set number of eagle deaths per wind project through incidental take permits. However, experts argue that these limits rely on flawed data that underestimate real mortality rates. Since eagles reproduce slowly, even a small number of fatalities can have devastating effects on their population. Yet regulatory agencies continue approving projects like Rail Tie without adequately addressing these risks.”
See which includes great links to more data.
When it comes to eagles and onshore wind projects there is a glaring deficiency that should be corrected — the killing is unlimited. Every project gets a permit so the total number of allowed deaths just keeps going up and up as more projects come online. Surely this is wrong.
There should be a strict limit to the cumulative total number of kills allowed each year. In the regulatory world this is called a cap on killing. We see something like this sort of cap in the issuance of State hunting licenses for large game. It could be called the wind power bag limit.
The issuance of permits for new wind projects, if any, would be based on the total kills allowed under the existing permits. If this total was less than the cap then permits could be issued in the amount of the difference. These permits might be auctioned off, or allocated by lottery, or something else. The cap on killing needs to be strictly enforced. If a project kills its allotment then it has to shut down for, say, the rest of the year or however the cap is set.
In contrast the Biden Administration made it much easier to get eagle killing permits which were then not enforced. They created what is called a General Permit meaning individual projects did not have to submit lengthy project specific applications. The project basically just registered and paid a nominal processing fee. The requirement that reporting of actual kills had to be monitored by an independent third party was also dropped.
These ill conceived policy changes need to be reversed. The allowable kills need to be limited and the kill reports made accurate.
In addition to the allowable kill numbers the eagle death reports should be made public. People need to know that wind projects in their county or state are killing eagles, where and how many. They also need to know how many more kills are proposed.
Given good eagle kill information we can make informed decisions about capping and reducing these deaths. Lift the veil on wind power killing eagles.
Before anyone tries to make the stupid argument that Cats kill more birds than Wind Turbines consider Exposure Potentials.
There are 500,000 wind turbines globally each taking 2-3 birds, 1 raptor (eagle, hawk) and about 5 bats per year average per turbine. There are 600,000,000 cats globally.
They will try the same stupid argument with birds killed by glass windows in building..
How many buildings are there in the world?
How many eagles and other top-of-hierarchy birds are killed by building glass.
In my 75 years I’ve seen several birds crashing into windows. It’s almost always robins because they enjoy our lawns so they’re around our homes. They are abundant so nothing to worry about regarding their populations.
most all the birds by flying into glass buildings are the old and sick,
Most birds killed by windmills are healthy birds
The Burj Khalifa in Dubai Has 24,348 windows while the old Twin Towers had 43,600 windows. Manhattan alone is estimated to have between 4.6M and 10.7M windows. Globally they would number in the Billions
Manhattan is a prime raptor region. [Wink, wink]
SF is loaded with Falcons too
I’m pretty sure that given the chance a bald eagle will take more cats per annum than cats taking bald eagles
Abso-freekin-lutly
Bryan, the number of wind turbine kills that you have stated come from the wind lobby. In reality, the average wind turbine kills 500 birds per year . The wind turbine apologists have always grossly understated the avian death toll from wind turbines. There are now 700,000 wind turbines multiplied by 500 gives a more realistic number of bird fatalities of 350 million birds per year.
Independent studies give the following number of bird fatalities by wind turbine by country:
Spain: 333-1000 birds/bats per year
Germany: 309 birds per year.
Sweden: 895 birds per year.
Here is a link to the independent studies.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230331030649/https://windmillskill.com/blog/spanish-wind-farms-kill-6-18-million-birds-bats-year
Cats do not kill eagles, windmills do
Cats kill bird species that are abundant- like sparrows. I doubt any cat every killed a raptor. A raptor is more likely to kill a cat.
I’ve never seen a cat take a bird, mice and small rodents regularly. I my garden close to a country park I’ve seen a Peregrine take a small bird on two occasions. People love watching Peregrines nesting and feeding young on webcams but don’t make the connection between chick’s getting fed and a small bird being the food.
We also have Magpies and Grey Squirrels which raid nests.
The Anti Science Website “skeptical Science ” is running 33 renewable myths busted. Each of the myth busting are based on sleigh of hand tricks. They claim 2.4 billions bird killed a year by cats. There are about 7-9 billion birds in the US, – So they attempt to claim 25% of the bird population is killed by cats a year? They also ignore that birds are the very much part of the natural food cycle for cats.
https://skepticalscience.com/sabin33-19-are-wind-turbines-a-major-threat-to-wildlife.html
I live in the countryside in NE Wales. Our cat mostly catches voles or mice and only rarely birds, often youngsters that have fallen out of nests. Whilst she has very occasionally caught young rabbits she has never to my knowledge brought in an adult bird. Total catches are about 10 a year, although there may obviously be others that she doesn’t bring home.
Our cat is an excellent hunter and catches probably 4 to 8 birds a month as Wells keeping our garage and house relatively mouse free. That said he mostly catches small birds like Juncos, Chickadees, Sparrows, Finches and occasionally a Cardinal. But we feed over 2000 lbs of seeds and suet of various types per year and as a result are visited daily by hundreds of birds of dozens of species. The consistent quality and abundant food we supply certainly supports a healthy and expanded population. Our cats hunting success is therefore of no consequence. I’m fairly sure that probably half or more of his take are birds that were injured or killed hitting windows.
By the way, he is very aware of hawks and eagles in the area and finds cover whenever they’re cursing overhead.
Damn, I have two ‘ratters’ … malteseX … the other day a great rat hopped across from the neighbour’s jungle, pranced around in front of these ignorant mutts, and then sashayed away. The only reaction from the ‘ratters’ was none, just looked at the rat.
Most of the birds killed by cats or flying in to windows are small birds. Large birds like hawks and eagles are not killed by cats (at least no cat that I am aware of) or by flying in to windows. I would guess that more cats are killed by raptors than the other way around.
This distinction is lost in the stupid cats and windows argument.
Cats also kill millions (billions?) of mammals each year. Guess that means a few hundred incidental rhino deaths are no big deal.
Heh, thanks for the chuckle. That’s what happens when distinctions and differences are lost when different populations are lumped into a statistical average. Probably a lesson for global average temperature anomalies in there somewhere too, but above my statistical pay grade.
Same thing happens with the “average global temperature.”
When it comes to large raptors, the cat is the one likely to die.
Birds (small birds ) are part of the natural food cycle for cats. Totally expected that cats will kill lots of birds. duh!
David,
Nice use of English language with “We see something like this sort of cap in the issuance of State hunting licenses for large game. It could be called the wind power bag limit.” This is catchy and easy for all to understand.
However, in reality there does come a point when you are balancing concern for nature with concern for mankind (though some would argue these are the same.)
We have seen this trade-off end in disaster like the lengthy case of the snail darter fish delaying building the Tellico Dam. There are more examples.
History suggests that all human developments involve damage and all involve a compromise. With wildlife, the compromise should prevent extinction of a major species that is not already becoming extinct as shown by measurement.
I suspect that I am like most readers where who deplore the early deaths of beautiful birds like eagles, then jump into their cars and kill other birds as they drive along. Emotions do not assist solutions, difficult though they might be.
Geoff S
Fortunately killing birds with cars happens even less often that wind turbines as there are 2.2B cars globally. I have driven
1950 Ford Coupe
1968 Camaro
1972 Ford Pinto
1973 Ford F150 P/U
1976 Datsun P/U
1979 Ford Mustang
1979 Ford Ranger P/U
1980 Ford F150
1980 Ford Courier
1983 Ford Taurus
1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass
1988 Gio Storm
1992 Pontiac Grand Prix
1998 Dodge Durango
2008 Dodge Charger
2023 Nissan Rogue
For well over a million miles total and never hit more than a bug(s) millions of bugs
Hit a slow pigeon once, didn’t do it much good 🙁
I also got side-swiped by a kangaroo once, great big dent in the door.
Darn thing just kept hopping along !
Have you ever driven in a grasshopper swarm…
… tends to clog up the radiator, as well as making visibility very poor.. !
And as you say.. millions of bugs.. part of the Australian bush.
Done that in Africa … locust plague. Completely encrusted the front of the radiator. By the time I was able to get to a high-pressure hose, they’d cooked in and the radiator had to be replaced. Took 5 days to get a radiator delivered to the village.
That is about right this has all been studied
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/wind-power-bird-deaths
It’s about 1 bird per car per year but likely trucks account for multiple per year and cars much fewer.
I wonder if the pressure bow-wave of a fast moving truck helps protect birds.
I’m 65 and, although I may not have driven as many cars as you have, in all my decades of driving I have only hit a few birds. Don’t have an actual tally but probably less than five.
Likewise although I did hit a turkey once.
Bryan A,
My Dad was a General Motors manager for North Queensland getting a new model Holden every 4-5 months so I suspect I have driven rather more cars – but I was not promoting cars, I was not promoting windmills, I was not promoting any form of premature avian death.
I was stating that development by mankind very often causes damage to the natural surroundings, causing a compromise. When you find a new mine, as we found several, you know that there will be a development trade-off. It is sad,sometimes, but it happens. An eagle might look more handsome than a buzzard, but who is to judge that one should be put in danger over the other? A bird is a bird and we eat chickens with scarce a thought. Logic easily flies out of the window in the business of harming bird life.
People seem to have missed the point that the balance between harm to creatures and developments for people is not always win-win, but it can be troublesome to overemphasize the wildlife protection case. Geoff S
The bald eagle is protected under two federal laws and it is our national bird/symbol. Wind mills should be treated the same as oil or gas companies, but wind farms have a special exemption for killing them. Without the exemption wind farms could not exist.
Geoff,
a valid point but I would argue we don’t need wind generators, there is no needs must.
They are a very poor source of power and would not be considered if it were not for the ‘climate crisis’.
In reality, if there was a climate crisis then we would have been building reliable nuclear generators.
Iain,
I have actually participated in decisions to reject large wind power developments at remote mine sites, including one at the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle, uranium mining. My personal, overall summary is nuclear tops, windmills stupid for many reasons. Geoff S
Over almost 50 years and well over 1 million miles, I’ve hit one bird.
Nobody is saying that we shouldn’t kill any birds.
However, if they build all the windmills they are talking about building, the kill rate for raptors could easily be enough to drive them into extinction.
Is that something anyone should want?
We also need better data on actual kills …
___________________________________
So far graphic evidence is in short supply.
A lot of data is tied to dubious biased party study
For what it’s worth trying to find an unbiased one
https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/wind-power-bird-deaths
Particular species are more likely than others and bats are even more likely to get killed and yes there are cheap options which for some reason wind farm owners seem to ignore.
Under the permits all eagle deaths are to be reported to FWS. That is the data I want to see plus steps to improve it.
If only they painted black bands on the blades so birds could see them.
The problem for raptors is that they blades are coming from the side, while their vision is focused forward.
The uncomfortable truth is, environmentalists, Greens, and the authorities could not care less about rare and endangered eagles.
It is even worse than that.
Here in the UK we have the RSPB (The Royal Society for Protection of Birds) organisation headed up by the King, they are in favour of wind turbines even though they know the turbines kill birds which is what they are in place as a charity to protect!!
Money heals all ills, unless you are an eagle of course….
Well said!
I used to support the RSPB but after they embraced wind turbines (and used to picture their homepage with their images) I challenged their stance and the eco-rubbish response I received back convinced me to stop donating to them. The fact they don’t denounce wind turbines (bird, bat and insect mincing machines) is a national disgrace.
On a similar vein (going off message slightly here) look at the UK subsidising the Drax power station to the tune of £££m to chop down some 27 million trees a year in North America. The trees are turned into wood pellets which are shipped a few thousand miles to Yorkshire where they’re burnt to generate electricity.
Drax incidentally sits close to vast reserves of coal and shale gas neither of which are exploited. And no, I’m really not making this up.
The number of birds, bats, insects and other wildlife sacrificed in this virtue signalling nonsense beggars belief.
Here are my two personal observations. As a District Geologist for Pegasus Gold staff found a dead bird (something common) at our Florida Canyon gold mine in Nevada. After notifying Nevada Department Of Wildlife, they said to preserve the bird in a refrigerator, and a few days later two NDOW Agents showed up to retrieve the bird for autopsy. Later, other company, working in the insitu-leach uranium belt NE of Casper, Wyoming, I saw (early one Monday morning, long story) many dead birds, including a Golden Eagle and some kind of Falcon, underneath two wind mill generators, part of a long line along a ridge top. Two employees showed up and tossed all of the dead birds into the back of a pickup, and drove along to the next wind mill. Looks like the issue of “taking” permits have a political component.
“a few days later two NDOW Agents showed up to retrieve the bird for autopsy”
I wonder what that cost the taxpayers?
I thought that if the government paid for it, it was free. /sarc
Sounds to me like the “taking” permits have a more of a fraud component. I deal at times with VPDES (Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination Permits) for discharges to state waters. All of the permits have sampling, monitoring and reporting requirements. I and my client would be in deep kimchi if we misreported the monitoring data to cover up a discharge permit violation.
LET THE EAGLES LIVE
Ban all windmills on land and sea in the US ASAP
I support The Eagles
The Eagles won the Super Bowl.
Trump is trying to do just that for new windmills. Capping the eagle and whale killing could do just that.
There’s a big wind farm along the US/Canadian Border, The Glacier Wind Farm.
A local guy I know from that area’s brother works on that farm,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier_Wind_Farm
Montana has been described as a small town with long roads. The cheap
talk on the street is there have been a lot of dead birds found among the towers
by the guys who work there. Including big raptors. Another local contentious wildlife issue is the grizzly bear reintroduction out on the prairie. One small town up on the highline can’t let the
school kids play outside on the playground at noon because of the grizzly bears.
I can’t share what I’ve been told on that subject but it’s interesting. It’s been
said if you see a backhoe traveling down the road some morning up there you wonder
who shot the bear. The USFWS had to trap and put down 2 griz last summer a couple
of miles down the road from me. One was getting into a chicken coop and the other was raiding
personal buildings.. it can be a ‘rough neighborhood.
Out on the farms there are piles
of dead livestock called “dead piles” I used to take my losses from the valley up to
the high country so as not to attract predators around the flocks. I always would put a trail
cam near them.. I used to have pics of golden eagles on carcasses but since
these wind farms have been build I haven’t seen any for years. Are they connected?
Maybe. Every February the hooting of the Big Horned Owls would echo up in the
mountain valley during the mating season, but I haven’t heard any for years. Windtowers?
maybe..
It’s not a wind farm. It’s a factory. Farms are places where you grow things.
When those wind towers were being built the pieces were being trucked
up the highway I-15 near my place. I had never seen anything like that before.
The blades were enormous.
A local businessman’s brother in law was involved on a high level.
I heard some things like the crane used to assemble the towers required
something like 10 semi loads to haul the sections of the crane tower that lifted the pieces into place. A local electrical company that I hire to install irrigation power lines
for the pumps had some interesting stories moving power lines crossing the roads
for the big loads on this project.. Farms have changed in a similar way also.================>
Meadowstar Dairy
On the subject of wind farms and bird kills this am I saw this=======>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rim_Rock_Wind_Farm
Of particular interest was this—seems curious that the courts have kept a lid on this and
moved it from MT to CA, it got run up the flag pole but nothing in the media…
In December 2013, San Diego Gas & Electric filed a lawsuit against NaturEner, claiming that NaturEner hid the possibility that nearby eagles would be harmed by the wind farm. NaturEner in turn filed a lawsuit against the state utility, claiming that the utility wanted out of the contract. Justices of the Montana Supreme Court ruled that the contractual issue would have to be resolved in Californian courts (and not Montana courts). No further announcements on the case have been made
This item in the Fedeal register is little commented upon as far as I know. The Migratory Birst Treat Act (1918) protects many migratory birds here is a ruling (Jan. 7, 2021) on the concept of takings as applied to these protected birds:
What I assume this means is that unless your wind farm was designed specifically to target, hunt, and kill the protected species, then the MBTA doesn’t apply. All of the estimates about vehicles, cats, electric distribtion, and oil pits killing billions of birds per year are there.
That explains why Abraham Lincoln didn’t show up in the last presidential Epic Rap Battle Of History. No eagle!
Very nice, good information. It is clear that wind and solar companies are not fully cooperating, the same can be said of the government. Until we know what is happening no bird kill permits should be issued. In the meantime older wind and solar projects need to reapply for bird kill permits, they may or may not be approved based on the number of birds killed up till now by the facility. Until the numbers are provided the facility will be shut down. I doubt the numbers will ever be provided. Once it is shut down it must be dismantled and properly disposed of. This will serve two purposes, we will know how much it costs to dismantle them and we will learn how to properly dispose of them. I see no future for wind and solar.
Put a bounty on each carcass delivered to nominated agency to help beat the scavengers. The bounty can be recovered as a backcharge to the wind farm.
The bounty hunters would have unfettered access to all wind farm land.