Rfalconcam Forum

Arrival of windmills to N.J. may pose threat to winged creatures
by Brian T. Murray/The Star-Ledger
Sunday August 16, 2009, 12:20 PM

One force of nature lures butterflies, bats and birds to the skies over a geographic formation known as the Shawangunk-Kittatinny Ridge.

The wind.


The Associated Press
Windmills like these, pictured in Maine, may take their place in New Jersey along the Shawangunk-Kittatinny Ridge.
Each fall, a strong and steady northwest current creates deflective updrafts and thermals as it collides with the 250 miles of mountainous spine stretching inside the larger Appalachian Highlands from New York's Ulster County, through northwest New Jersey and southwesterly toward Pennsylvania's Mason-Dixon line. Eons ago, butterflies, bats and birds, especially raptors, discovered they could effortlessly ride the thermals during their annual, autumn migrations and they have been flocking there by the tens of thousands.

Bird-watchers, who discovered the phenomenon less than a century ago, also flock there to marvel at the kettles of bald eagles, sharp-shined hawks, peregrine falcons and 13 other species of raptors known to share those skies.

But windmills now threaten to turn them all into mulch.

The nation's growing thirst for alternative energy has descended on a section of the ridge known as Blue Mountain in Lower Towamensing Township, Pa., about 20 miles west of the New Jersey border. A ski resort, interested in cutting electrical costs, built a test tower in December to monitor the potential output for at least one large, commercial turbine, and another resort in Delaware, Pa., has similar plans.

"There is a concern about it along all of the Appalachian ridges," said Donald Heintzelman, ornithologist, author and co-founder of the Wildlife Information Center in Slatington, Pa. "There already are wind farms in West Virginia and in southwestern Pennsylvania, as well as farther north in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. We want to keep them off the Shawangunk-Kittatinny. This is an internationally known raptor migration route."

Wildlife have collided with the giant, blindly rotating blades of wind-power for 25 years in places like California's Altamont Pass. One 2004 study there showed 1,766 to 4,721 feathered creatures, including eagles, are annually cut up in the 5,000 turbines.

Heintzelman has petitioned the federal Department of the Interior to designate the Shawangunk-Kittatinny Ridge as a "National Raptor Migration Corridor," a unique label that would carry no legal protection for the ridge. But more than 200 environmental groups have signed on to his campaign this summer, insisting it will help the Shawangunk-Kittatinny Ridge win future protections.

"It would become a tool for land conservation organizations," said Eric Olsen of the Nature Conservancy in New Jersey. "It gives national recognition to the value of the ridge, and a designation like that will bring in more birding people who will spend more dollars in the towns they come through to get there and that will boost incentives to preserve the area."

But windmills are not a bane to all conservationists along the 1,500 miles of Appalachian ridges between Alabama and Canada.

In West Virginia, where turbine fields already have been built, many activists contend there are worse things than shredded birds and bats. The ridges in the Mountain State are disappearing, along with the wildlife that rely on them, as coal companies strip them down to harvest the nation's most prevalent, lucrative and, arguably, dirtiest fuel source.

"I think we have to consider the balancing act, after we consider the alternative which, down here, is complete destruction of our mountaintops. Our mountaintops are being turned into moonscapes by the coal companies," said Lorelei Scarboro, wind project leader of the Coal River Mountain Watch.

The organization's decade-long struggle in southern West Virginia to end mountain-top mining was noted in the book "Crimes Against Nature," Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 2003 indictment of the environmental policies of then-President George W. Bush. The toxic waste that coal refinement pours into local water supplies and the massive coal slurry impoundments, such as the one that gave way and destroyed a dozen homes in Tennessee in December, are a daily fact of life for people losing their mountain ridges to coal production.

"We have a choice between totally destroying part of the Appalachian Mountains, including the wildlife, the headwater streams and the Appalachian culture, or finding alternatives like wind power," said Scarboro.

On another West Virginia ridge known as Kayford Mountain, Larry Gibson, an activist nicknamed the "Keeper of the Mountains," has watched coal mining erase the forested crests where his family took root in the 1700s.

"I am all for windmills. I think that they would look a lot better than mountaintop removal. I also think windmills are cheaper and a better way to have electricity, water and all the necessary needs we have that we use coal for," he said.

National organizations such as the Sierra Club, Audubon and the American Bird Conservancy have a different view. While generally supportive of wind energy, they too want turbines kept off Appalachian ridges like the Shawangunk-Kittatinny, arguing that wind farms must be properly built to not interfere with bird, bat or butterfly migrations.

Turbines already are taking a heavy toll in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Game Commission released a report last spring showing the death rate is highest for bats, which additionally face being wiped out by a mysterious phenomenon called "white-nose syndrome."

The evidence has mounted since studies in 2004 showed 1,500 to 4,000 bats annually were killed by the 44 turbines on West Virginia's Backbone Mountain. In the Meyersdale area of southwestern Pennsylvania, 20 turbines killed 400 to 660 bats in a six-week study period, and researches contend 80 percent of the casualties are hoary bats, red bats and silver-haired bats.

Federal authorities, concerned about impacts on the federally endangered Indiana bat, are now studying plans to erect more windmills -- 30 turbines on Pennsylvania's Shaffer Mountain, about 70 miles west of the Shawangunk-Kittatinny Ridge.

They need to work on finding a way to make it safe for the wildlife. (giant cages like on people fans) I don't know something.

I agree!! This is bad.

There are alternatives that don't use large rotating fan blades.

http://www.inhabitat.com/2006/11/15/quiet-revolution-wind-turbine/

I also heard the windmills kill bats. something about the change of pressure causes thier lungs to collapse

Exactly, it seems bats don´t be killed by the fan blades, they are suffering the changes of pressure colse to the wind mills.
Mirta

Shaky, that link to the new-style turbines was interesting - thanks for posting it. The wind farms are wreaking havoc on flying creatures across the nation.   >:( Wind farms are a highly-touted "green" source of energy but not enough thought went into them. Bat Conservation International has been running a campaign asking that turbines be shut down at dawn and dusk, peak feeding times for bats, and that has resulted in fewer mortalities for farms that are willing to do it. It's not the speed that kills bats, it's the drastic change in pressure when they enter the turbines. With lots of letter-writing to legislators, perhaps turbines could be shut down during the raptor migration.  Hawk Mountain, a famous raptor corridor near me, is extremely worried about the new farms planned for NJ, NY, and PA. I sure hope something can be worked out to protect raptors and bats and still reap the benefits of wind power.

Dot in PA

  :crying: Whenever human activity collides head-on with birds and other wildlife, I am reminded of this frightening, pessimistic quotation by Jacques Deval:

"God loved the birds and invented trees.  Man loved the birds and invented cages."

Dot in PA,
still optimistic after all these years

I'd like to believe that we are better than that, but......

There is a Ginormous wind farm in northern California run by PG&E.  They have been working with conservationists for several years now to try to mitigate the avian injuries and deaths that have been caused.  There are also several farms out by Palm Springs, I don't know what they have done though.  Hopefully, these organizations/companies that are planning these farms will look to those that have been working for years to learn the ins/outs of animal protections that have been learned so that they might be able to build better wind machines.

Bats are already in danger from white-nose fungus, which is decimating populations on the East Coast.  We don't need any other dangers to them, they're too important to our environments!

Judi

Bats are already in danger from white-nose fungus, which is decimating populations on the East Coast.  We don't need any other dangers to them, they're too important to our environments!

Judi

Judi, the Bats here in Rockaway are all but gone now because of that fungus. 10's of thousands are wiped out from it.

very sad,

Donna

I love bats!  Another GOOD Bug-eating critter!  I've been thinking about putting up some bat houses because they really are good critters. 

This is an excellent site for lots of good info on bat conservation.  This link takes you to the page on bat houses...

http://www.batcon.org/index.php/get-involved/install-a-bat-house.html

We found this site while doing some research on bat houses for the bat colony we have at the zoo.  They're about to lose their roosting structure, an octagonal shaped open venue which is used for banquets and things like that.  A donor has given us a carousel which will be installed on this land space (full sized with hand carved endangered species...it's beautiful!).  We are in the process of identifying the species of bats we have so we can mount the right types of boxes for them.

 :wave:

That's a good way to go.  They're most likely the right kind of box for whatever bats you have in the area.

One thing that most people don't know about bats is how they get airborne - they don't "launch" themselves into the air like birds do, they kind of fall from where they are perching and then start flapping.  So you want to make sure that the box is mounted high enough for them to have enough room underneath to take off from.

Good luck with the bat boxes!

Judi

I just saw an article yesterday (posted below) about wind farms in California, and their ability to chop up California Condors.  It's known that lead ammunition in the carcasses they eat is a leading cause of death for the birds, but this article talked about wind farms being another huge obstacle in the recovery of the condor.

http://www.examiner.com/x-13344-Wildlife-Conservation-Examiner~y2009m8d30-California-condors-wind-farms-on-collision-course

The L.A. Zoo receives all the condors that are injured or sick (we are one of the five organizations involved in the Condor captive breeding program, and the lead organization) and we (the volunteers) always hear about any that come to us for treatment.  I have not heard of any coming in with any injuries from wind turbines or any deaths from them either.  I have a meeting with department heads at the zoo next Friday - our Zoo Conservation Committee - and will be stopping by our Avian Curator's office; she is a member of the condor recovery team and I'll ask her about this issue.

Judi

Now the Windmill Farms, so supported by "environmentalists, are cleared to kill Eagles...http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/wind-permits-allowing-eagle-deaths-face-blowback-20140123 (http://[url=http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/wind-permits-allowing-eagle-deaths-face-blowback-20140123)  http://tinyurl.com/kpjp9qg (http://tinyurl.com/kpjp9qg)] http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/wind-permits-allowing-eagle-deaths-face-blowback-20140123 (http://www.nationaljournal.com/daily/wind-permits-allowing-eagle-deaths-face-blowback-20140123)  http://tinyurl.com/kpjp9qg (http://tinyurl.com/kpjp9qg)[/url]

Carol
in FRIGID WV