BOISE – Wind farms are popping up all across our region. In Idaho alone, there are around 600 turbines generating energy.
The alternative resource could be endangering local wildlife, including many species of birds. In fact, it's estimated that 2,500 birds die each year in Idaho from wind turbines.
7 Investigates looked into who is keeping track of those fatalities and whether any action is being taken against the facilities where deaths occur.
We found out that there are no clear answers as to how the wind farms are being monitoring or exactly how many birds are dying.
ONE WIND FARM'S STORY
Randy Joseph operates Lime Wind in eastern Oregon.
He has owned the six turbines for three years, and runs the facility along with the help of his two sons.
Lime Wind was the first wind energy development to open on Bureau of Land Management land in Oregon, and Joseph says that prompted plenty of studies about the turbines' possible affect on local wildlife.
He says protecting the birds and animals that live nearby is a top priority.
"I think the real message is, you need to do the studies, you need to know the habitat you're going into," said Joseph.
Joseph says there are animals close by, and they even caught video of a few eagles flying around their facility.
"I have seen them soar above the turbines, but it didn't affect them at all," said Joseph.
He says his turbines have never killed an eagle, but understands it's a risk.
"We go out twice a year and look for carcasses and we found two bats in three years," said Joseph.
TRACKING FATALITIES
The US Fish and Wildlife Services is responsible for tracking those numbers, but they could not tell us exactly how many birds had died in Idaho alone. Mike Green works for the federal agency and says they can use data to get an estimate.
"If you multiply those numbers across the number of turbines that exist in Idaho right now, you come up with about 2,500 birds," said Green.
That's 2,500 birds killed each year in Idaho. Green says they don't know what species that includes. He did say that two eagles were killed at wind farms in Idaho.
As it stands right now, he says there is no limit on how many deaths can occur at each site. But, Green says they work with each development to estimate how many fatalities will occur, then monitor how many carcasses are reported.
"If the numbers are really, really high and the company is unwilling to work with us to do whatever they can to bring those numbers down, more avoidance and minimization measures, we might take up some law enforcement action," said Green.
The US Fish and Wildlife Services said that less than 10 investigations have taken place at wind farm facilities in Idaho, and none of which have resulted in prosecutions.
He also mentioned that there are federal laws in place like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Golden and Bald Eagle Protection Act. He said those laws protect thousands of species of birds, but right now there's no permit process in place for incidental killings at wind farms.
"That's where the wind development guidelines have come into play that we have developed with bird conservation partners and with the wind industry that really sets up a process for avoiding and minimizing take of birds," said Green.
DECREASING THE DANGER
Todd Katzner, a research wildlife biologist with the USGS in Idaho, says counting the number of bird deaths at a wind farm is extremely difficult.
"If you go to a wind turbine and find a bird or bat that's died, you know one animal was killed but you don't know how many other animals you missed," said Katzner.
Katzner also adds that fatalities differ greatly from one wind farm to the next.
"There's nothing that really prepares them for a big spinning blade in the sky," said Katzner.
He says most wind facilities use contractors to search for carcasses several times a year, and wide scale monitoring is only done at three wind farms in all of Idaho.
"One of the real big problems issues we have in Idaho and nationally is that there's only some places where there's actually monitoring of facilities," said Katzner.
Katzner's office is now working to figure out how to decrease the danger to birds. In fact, USGS recently released an interactive map of all the wind farms in the US in order to study each location, including things like topography and weather.
In Idaho, most are located in the south, with clusters near Glenns Ferry, Hagerman, American Falls, and Idaho Falls.
Katzner says the problem is that our state holds great locations for wind energy that happen to be near migratory paths and bird populations.
"Idaho has great populations of wildlife, lots of golden eagles in particular and lots of birds of prey that are potentially at risk," said Katzner.
WHAT'S NEXT
At Lime Wind, Joseph still believes both wind energy and wildlife can co-exist, but even he admits more should be done to protect the animals so many in Idaho value.
"I think there needs to be some clarification as to post construction monitoring and then what would happen if and when mitigation had to take place," said Joseph.
As for the estimated 2,500 birds killed at Idaho wind farms a year, US Fish and Wildlife Services says that number didn't seem excessive in comparison to other states.
Again, they tell us there is no specific number of fatalities allowed at a wind energy facility. Both agencies say they are working to improve the process.
There is a permit in place for wind farms regarding the Golden and Bald Eagle Protection Act, but so far only one has been issued nationwide.
