The number of bald eagle nests in North Dakota has soared in the past decade along with a big increase in electric-generating wind towers, raising concerns that more birds might run into turbine blades.
State Game and Fish department data show 171 bald eagle nests have been identified this year, up from 28 in 2005. Over roughly the same period, nearly 1,000 turbines in some 20 counties have been erected with the capacity to generate a combined total of nearly 2,000 megawatts of wind power.
More than additional 1,000 wind turbines are planned or under construction.I would not have posted this story except for the last paragraph:
Shelley said only one bald eagle has been killed within a wind farm area. It happened this spring in the western part of the state, where the eagle was found within 150 feet of a wind turbine but a necropsy failed to determine if the bird was killed by the turbine or hit by a vehicle.So, we have a dead eagle at the bottom of wind turbine out in the middle of nowhere and experts suggest "a vehicle" could have hit it. I can't make this stuff up.
On another note, having to decide between dozens of species of migratory birds, the golden and bald eagles, the sand cranes, etc., and the sage grouse, I would have to side with the former. Extraordinary efforts are being undertaken to destroy the domestic oil and gas industry under the guise of saving the sage grouse, and yet wind farms are given a free pass. Some birds -- like the sage grouse -- appear determined to fade away no matter how hard humans try to save them. At some point, we need to say, we did all we could, and then move on. The piping plover on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, is another great example, which has been noted by many folks living on the cape.
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