Conservation
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TAS donated $150 for the cypress trees.
Bird
Kill at Wind Facility Triggers Better Lighting Practices
News of a recent bird kill of Blackpoll
Warblers and other species at a wind facility in West Virginia
spread quickly through birding lists and caught the attention of the
birding community in the region. Audubon staff learned of this
unfortunate event and contacted the facility owner, AES Wind
Generation, to investigate the causes of the incident and to work
toward developing solutions that will help ensure such an incident
doesn’t happen again. From all indications, a combination of
lighting and poor weather conditions were the primary causes of the
bird kill. AES representatives told Audubon they
have taken immediate corrective actions to curtail excessive night
lighting, replace equipment with preferable downward-shielded
lighting fixtures, and will modify other site specifications. They
will increase monitoring and take additional steps to reduce or
eliminate lighting the facility during migration seasons to avert
future bird kills of this type. Now, actions need to be taken to minimize
the likelihood of similar events in the future at other wind power
facilities. Audubon is in discussions with AES and others about
sharing the lessons from this event with the broader wind industry
and emphasizing the importance of the lighting practices in the
forthcoming federal wind guidelines. We hope that, as a result, new
facilities will be written to specs that incorporate lighting
practices that have been shown to minimize bird mortality during
migration. This is a straightforward corrective action that will
significantly lessen the negative consequences to birds, while
delivering carbon-limited sources of renewable energy. We will be
working to help make this a standard practice across the industry. Read more about this incident and the
actions taken:
http://www.audubon.org/documents/audubon-summary-aes-bird-kill-incident.
Contact Connie Mahan in Audubon's Policy Office if you have any
questions or concerns:
cmahan@audubon.org.
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