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Re: [Carolinabirds] Raptors and turbo-turbines



On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, Elise Schmidt wrote:
> 
> Audubon:  www.audubon.org/campaign
> Condor-Pass:  www.condor-pass.org

Elise:

Thank you very much for posting these web addresses. For those who 
haven't visited them yet, here are some lowlights:

* A California Energy Commission
       report on one wind project found
       that 55% of all raptor deaths were
       due to collisions with wind turbines.

* Up to 300 birds of prey, including
       dozens of golden eagles, are killed
       every year by a single California
       wind turbine project.


* More eagles are killed by wind
       turbines than were lost in the
       disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill. 

* Turbine construction attracts
       raptors. Changes in vegetation and
       soil disturbances can increase
       rabbit, squirrel and other small game
       populations, luring raptors in search
       of food who instead find a grisly
       death.

The natural range of the condor
       spans two north-south corridors
       in California connected only by a
       very narrow flyway, precisely
       where Enron wants to erect its
       deadly wall of wind turbines.
       Some observers have called this
       area "ground zero" for the
       condor.

       * In the 1980s, two of the last
       five pairs of condors nested
       above Pyramid Lake, only a few
       miles south of Enron's proposed
       site. 

       * The last condors trapped from
       the wild in 1987 were on Tunis
       Ridge, just north of Enron's
       proposed site.

       * The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
       Service's newest condor
       reintroduction site is the
       Chimneys/Wind Wolves Release
       Area, northwest of Enron's
       proposed wind farm and just a
       short flight for a condor.

I'm more than a little put off that the US government has spent millions 
of dollars on the California Condor captive breeding program to 
re-establish the species in the wild, but may allow a private corporation 
to use a tax loophole which could lead to the condors dying. It amounts 
to taking our imcome taxes and putting them in Enron's CEO's pocket, when 
you come right down to it...

Good luck surviving Floyd, one and all; if the eye comes this way, and 
the roads aren't blocked, I'm hoping to visit Falls Lake as soon as it's 
safe tomorrow. Not Rolling View though, I remember all the state 
recreation areas closed during last summer's closest call. Hopefully 
they'll open again in time for the NAMC on Saturday.

Good birding,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/