Scott,
Has an EIS, not just an EA, been done to access the impact of any of these wind farms on eagles/birds/bats?
What "conservation groups" are you referring to?
Thank you,
Cindy Ashy

--- On Thu, 1/5/12, Scott Downes <downess at charter.net> wrote:

From: Scott Downes <downess at charter.net>
Subject: [Tweeters] re: Golden Eagle Killing in Eastern Oregon
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Date: Thursday, January 5, 2012, 10:10 AM








Tweeters,
Rather than getting caught up in the hype of the
MSNBC article, I'd like to direct you to the link below outlining the submission
of the application for the take permit. I do a lot of work with wind and golden
eagles and in fact a coworker of mine-well known raptor biologist that has done
raptor banding at Bonney Butte for many years- did the golden eagle work on the
West Butte project that is the subject here. If you dig deeper you will find
that the "take permit" is actually applauded by some conservation groups as to
get this "take" permit they have to set up an avian conservation plan to assure
no net loss of eagles, thus in some ways eagle conservation as a whole will be
helped.
?
http://www.fws.gov/pacific/news/news.cfm?id=2144374933
?
If you go to the link and obtain and read the
application you will also see that the site is very low in eagle use relative to
many other areas in Eastern Oregon and Washington. The take application is not
for targeting eagles but rather to work with USFWS in the event that the project
might kill one through a turbine strike. It is a federal crime to kill an eagle
without a take permit and the developer was seeking assurances (its more of a
bank and financial thing) that by working with the USFWS on a conservation plan
and obtaining a take permit they would be exempted from prosecution for up to 3
eagle deaths per year. Essentially a take permit is a formal agreement saying
that if the developer agrees to minimize and mitigate eagle deaths in a way
agreeable to the USFWS that the USFWS would give some assurances to the
developer that they would not be prosecuted if an eagle death accidentally
happens. There is almost no project in eastern Washington or Oregon where the
chance of an eagle death is zero as even in non-breeding areas birds do migrate
through the area.
?
I have no problem with people believing that even
one death to eagles by any human cause isn't ok, that's what comments to the
proposal are for under the link above. However, can we please not react to
stories from mainstream media that certainly don't produce all of the
facts.
?
Thanks.
?
Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA

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