Interaction of Birds & Bats with Wind Turbines in Ohio?

[William A. Spratley]

Under our environmental and economic mission, non-profit Green Energy Ohio participates in the Ohio Wind Working Group which has taken up the issue of birds, bats and wind turbines since its inception in 2003 - see http://www.ohiowind.org/. 

GEO also helped managed an extensive study of avian risk assessment using national experts.  See June 2009 GEO News Magazine article at: www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageID=2474

The full Northwest Ohio Coastal Wind Initiative project and avian report also appears at: www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageID=2210  Early work on this issue by GEO volunteers also appears at: www.greenenergyohio.org/page.cfm?pageId=116

 

Below is a recent June 2010 fact sheet of interest on this same topic from a national perpective by the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative (NWCC.

 

- Bill Spratley, GEO

 

“Wind Turbine Interactions with Birds, Bats, and their Habitats: A Summary of Research Results and Priority Questions” 

Click to visit the website and download

This fact sheet, which is a product of the NWCC Wildlife Workgroup, summarizes what is known about bird and bat interactions with land-based wind power in North America, including habitat impacts, and what key questions and knowledge gaps remain. It uses the following three-tiered classification of wind-wildlife relationships based on the weight of the evidence and agreement, or lack thereof, among researchers in the field on each particular statement contained in the Fact Sheet:

• “What Studies Have Shown” are conclusions widely supported by peer-reviewed studies and on which there is broad consensus among researchers.
• “What Is Less Well Understood” presents ideas reached by some field studies, but either the evidence is too limited to support a firm and broadly applicable conclusion, there is some evidence to the contrary, or there is some controversy regarding the idea among researchers. 
• “Areas Where Little Is Known” presents questions to which even tentative conclusions cannot yet be reached based on current information and data gaps. These questions are hypotheses yet to be tested or are gaps in current knowledge that have been identified by researchers.

Click here to access the fact sheet and background information.  To see the Progress Alert announcing the fact sheet from the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, please click here.  

Thank you to all who contributed to the completion of this document!

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About the National Wind Coordinating Collaborative Wildlife Workgroup
The National Wind Coordinating Collaborative (NWCC) is a consensus-based network of stakeholders formed in 1994 to support the development of environmentally, economically, and politically sustainable commercial markets for wind power. The mission of the NWCC Wildlife Workgroup is to identify, define, discuss, and through collaboration address wind-wildlife and wind-habitat interaction issues by seeking broad stakeholder involvement on scientific and public policy questions. In addition to convening biennial meetings on the state of the art in wind-wildlife research, the workgroup seeks to provide reference documents as a resource to stakeholders.

Lauren Flinn
Program Associate, National Wind Coordinating Collaborative
RESOLVE, Inc.
1255 23rd St NW, Suite 875
Washington, DC 20037
202 965 6213 (Direct)
[e-mail]
www.nationalwind.org