<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2802" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7><FONT id=role_document
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>
<DIV>from a Sierra Club list serve I'm on. These turbines aren't located along a
major migrations route. And I have to confess that I don't know what the designs
are like, but the point is, if bats are dying, birds likely are, too.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Christine Williamson</DIV>
<DIV>Chicago/Cook</DIV>
<DIV><A href="mailto:birdchris@aol.com">birdchris@aol.com</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I've pasted below an abstract of the story about the large number
of<BR>bats that were killed last fall at a new windplant in Alberta, Canada
-<BR>the full article appeared in the Feb. 2006 issue of Windpower Monthly.
<BR>I would be willing to send a low resolution scanned copy of this 2
page<BR>article to anyone who requests it (about 400 KB in size).
<BR><BR>Although the full article indicated that 532 bat carcasses were
found,<BR>presumably the actual mortality estimate would be far larger
since<BR>researchers would have to account for the bat carcasses that
were<BR>removed by scavengers and those missed by searchers. For
comparison,<BR>only 475 bat carcasses were found under the 44 turbines in WV
during<BR>2003 - and the total mortality at that facility was estimated
to<BR>involve between 2000 and 4000 bats.<BR><BR>The Summerview wind project has
39 turbines, so besides<BR>misunderstanding that the carcasses found do not
indicate total<BR>mortality, the author of this article must have trouble with
math in<BR>stating that the per turbine bat kill was 7.7. Also, she
wrongly cites<BR>the mortality rate at the Mountaineer (WV) windplant as only 38
bats<BR>killed/turbine when it exceeded 50 bats/turbine/year in 2003
according<BR>to the biased "lowball" estimate reported by the windplant
owner's<BR>consultants (who failed to follow their own research
protocols). <BR><BR>As Dr. Merlin Tuttle has indicated in Bats magazine,
the actual bat<BR>mortality at Mountaineer in 2003 was close to 100
bats<BR>killed/turbine/year
(see:<BR>http://www.safewind.info/pdf/Bats_windmills_BCI_article.pdf ).
<BR>Apparently the author of the Windpower Monthly article also was<BR>confused
about the mortality estimate of 38 bats per turbine for the WV<BR>windplant in
2004 - which represented the estimate of the number killed<BR>during just a 6
week study conducted by Bat Conservation International.<BR><BR>However, it was
very good that the owner of the Alberta windplant<BR>immediately funded some
research involving a knowledgeable and<BR>independent expert, which included
withdrawing some of this windplant's<BR>turbines from production. It will
be interesting to see what the data<BR>shows about their effort to shut down
half of Summerview's turbines for<BR>a short period to test whether that action
would reduce bat kill. <BR>Apparently it wasn't 100% effective since they
indicated that dead bats<BR>were found under "locked" turbines.
<BR><BR>Industrial wind turbines currently are adding only a small fraction
of<BR>the destruction of Alberta's wildlife and landscape caused by
another<BR>energy source - oil sands (which is being mined in an
absolutely<BR>horrendous manner). Still, the cumulative threat to bats
from<BR>industrial wind energy development has increased with this evidence
of<BR>high bat mortality at a facility that is not located near
forested<BR>habitat. Unfortunately, the government of Alberta apparently
is adding<BR>insult to injury by selling off ecologically important
and<BR>publicly-owned grasslands to wind developers - see:
<BR>http://www.aenweb.ca/node/695 .<BR><BR>For current update about bat and wind
turbine situation, check out 2<BR>recent publications by Bat Conservation
International -<BR>http://www.vawind.org/Assets/Docs/Battered.pdf (see box on p.
3)<BR>and http://www.vawind.org/Assets/Docs/Key%20Issues%2001-06-06.pdf
.<BR><BR>Dan Boone<BR>Maryland<BR><BR>Investigating mystery bat deaths in
Canadian wind farm<BR><BR>A leading Canadian power producer is launching two bat
research<BR>programs after site monitoring at a southern Alberta wind farm
revealed<BR>hundreds of bat mortalities. About 90% of the bodies were found
during<BR>the fall migration in August and September. The mortalities
were<BR>largely silver-haired and hoary bats, neither of which is a species
at<BR>risk. The company is funding research to track bat behaviour and
hopes<BR>the findings can be used to identify potential issues at other
sites.<BR>Bat experts say to Windpower Monthly they are as surprised and
baffled<BR>by the deaths at the Alberta site as the wind industry
is.<BR>http://www.windpower-monthly.com/currentabstracts <BR><BR>- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<BR>To get off the
CONS-WPST-WES-FORUM list, send any message
to:<BR>CONS-WPST-WES-FORUM-signoff-request@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG<BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>