{"id":40390,"date":"2015-08-06T10:13:36","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T15:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=40390"},"modified":"2015-08-06T10:17:39","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T15:17:39","slug":"study-aims-to-predict-bird-deaths-from-wind-turbines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2015\/08\/06\/study-aims-to-predict-bird-deaths-from-wind-turbines\/","title":{"rendered":"New Tool Predicts Bird Deaths from Wind Turbines"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_40393\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-40393\" alt=\" Research looked at Golden Eagle deaths caused by wind turbines.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/08\/GoldenEagle-Nova1-300x273.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/08\/GoldenEagle-Nova1-300x273.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/08\/GoldenEagle-Nova1-620x564.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2015\/08\/GoldenEagle-Nova1.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Wikimedia Commons<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Research looked at Golden Eagle deaths caused by wind turbines.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Texas leads the nation in wind power, but some environmentalists worry about bird deaths cause by wind turbines \u2013 typically, birds fly into the blades of the turbines.<\/p>\n<p>Now,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usgs.gov\/newsroom\/article.asp?ID=4265&amp;from=rss&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usgs%2FnewsEverything+%28Newsroom+-+Everything%29#.VbuYfvlVhBc\">a new approach<\/a>\u00a0pioneered by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to decrease those fatalities by trying to calculate the probability of bird-turbine collisions, while recognizing the inherent uncertainty of the phenomenon.<\/p>\n<p>The approach is basically a mathematical formula. You plug in what you know about the local bird population, and where the turbines will be built. You run the numbers and get a fatality estimate.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/directory.vancouver.wsu.edu\/people\/leslie-new\">Dr. Leslie New<\/a>\u00a0is an assistant professor of statistics in Washington State University. She helped create the model looking at Golden Eagles, an endangered species; though, she says the model could be used for other species like the Bald Eagle.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, killing an endangered eagle is illegal, but wind farms can apply for a permit to exempt them from prosecution under the Endangered Species Act. New says the permits provide more an on-the-ground assessment of deaths as a result of collisions, but they will also help the model in predicting patterns of eagle deaths.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->\u201c[W]hen you\u2019re dealing with a permit, it\u2019s much easier to be open because there [are] no legal concerns regarding what to do about the fact that the eagle has collided,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/12\/18\/how-denmark-and-texas-became-wind-energy-kings\/\">How Denmark and Texas Became Wind Energy Kings<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/08\/07\/price-of-wind-energy-goes-down-in-texas\/\">Price of Wind Energy Goes Down in Texas<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2015\/02\/04\/better-batteries-might-hold-enough-to-power-your-neighborhood\/\">Better Batteries Might Hold Enough To Power Your Neighborhood<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2015\/04\/13\/scientists-are-flying-over-texas-oil-and-gas-fields-to-measure-air-pollution\/\">Scientists Are Flying Over Texas Oil and Gas Fields To Measure Air Pollution<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/08\/Wind-Transmission-Lines-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/wind-energy-transmission\/\">What Is Wind Energy Transmission Texas?<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>New says reported death could help change the placement of turbines or the times they run to mitigate bird deaths, but could also ultimately reduce the uncertainty of the model&#8217;s variables.<\/p>\n<p>The USGS says it\u2019s aware of at least one Golden Eagle death caused by a turbine in the Texas Panhandle.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fws.gov\/birds\/about-us.php\">Brian Millsap<\/a>\u00a0of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says raptors, and Golden Eagles especially, are prone to colliding with the blades of wind turbines, something that carries legal ramifications, as well as ecological ones.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny eagle deaths are a concern legally, because they\u2019re protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act,\u201d Millsap says. \u201cBut also biologically, because Golden Eagle populations are, by our estimates, stable and anything that\u2019s causing increased mortality is potentially going to cause populations to decline.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Millsap says the majority of wind farm projects across the country aren\u2019t permitted, but that the process of obtaining a permit is a relatively new one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas leads the nation in wind power, but some environmentalists worry about bird deaths cause by wind turbines \u2013 typically, birds fly into the blades of the turbines. Now,\u00a0a new approach\u00a0pioneered by the U.S. Geological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hopes to decrease those fatalities by trying to calculate the probability of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[24],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40390"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40401,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40390\/revisions\/40401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}