Hi Tweeties,

Here's another condor story from Southern California, only a little less
light hearted. I found it on the AP Newswire. Tehachapi is east of
Bakersfield.

I'll paste it below

Lydia In Kent, WA

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SEPTEMBER 13, 18:35 EDT

Audubon Society Fights for Condors

By BART JANSEN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The battle to save the endangered California condor is
colliding with another environmental priority: using windmills to generate
cleaner power.

The National Audubon Society said Monday it is fighting an Enron Corp.
proposal to erect wind-powered turbines in the Tehachapi Mountains about 60
miles north of Los Angeles. The fear is that some of the 49 wild condors
could be chewed up in the propellers spinning 200 feet above the ground.

``It is hard to imagine a worse idea than putting a condor Cuisinart next
door to critical condor habitat,'' said David Beard, the group's senior vice
president for public policy. ``The survival of the condor must come first.''

Enron officials contend they do not plan to build at the disputed site it
leased in 1982, even though the company filed state documents about the
project in March. The company is concentrating its turbines in several
projects around Palm Springs and included the disputed Tehachapi site as a
matter of routine, a spokesman said.

``There are no plans, even on the drawing board,'' said Gary Foster, a
spokesman for Houston-based Enron.

The Audubon Society is trying to pull the plug by targeting a federal tax
break.

The Wind Energy Tax Credit, which provides 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour
generated, expired June 30. Without it, wind power becomes much less
profitable.

House leaders are expected to introduce legislation soon to extend this and
other tax breaks, but Audubon officials are pushing for legislation to
prevent turbines within 10 miles of condor habitat.

The potential Enron project is about one mile south of where the last two
condors were captured on Tunis Ridge and two to three miles from where one
of the last nesting pairs was found near Pyramid Lake, Audubon officials
said.

The birds, with wingspans of close to 10 feet and weights up to 24 pounds,
can float on wind currents for 100 miles while searching for animal
carcasses.

``They're like the B-52s of the bird world,'' said Robert Mesta, condor
program coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Ventura,
Calif. ``It's hard for them to make quick adjustments.''

The California condor population dwindled to 21 in 1981 because of hunting
and poisoned carrion. But 162 birds are breeding in zoos or living in the
wild today.

The government spends about $1.7 million a year in a program to capture the
birds, raise the young, then set them free. Twenty live in the wild in
southern California, nine around Big Sur, 150 miles south of San Francisco,
and 20 in Nevada. Another 20 are scheduled to be released into the wild this
fall.

Five of the birds have died in collisions with power lines since 1992, Mesta
said, but none are known to have collided with windmills.

Enron will work with sponsors of the federal bill to ease worries about
protecting condors, Foster said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's Mesta said resolving the conflict between
birds and turbines will be difficult, because both rely on open, grassy
slopes for wind.

``It's going to be a tough one to solve,'' he said.




Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Comments and questions





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