Indiana Bats halt Greenbrier Wind Turbine Construction (Hinton, Poca: power lines, how much)
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"A federal district court judge in Maryland placed a huge roadblock in the path of a planned industrial wind facility in northern Greenbrier County, saying construction of the wind turbines would violate the Endangered Species Act."
"The injunction orders a halt to construction and prohibits operation of 40 completed turbines between April 1 and November 15, the endangered bat’s migratory period."
On one hand, the biologist in me says "GO BATS!" I worked with this species in Canaan. And they're awesome. And I always love it when a small, not-so-appealing underdog species wins out over big corporations.
However, the dirty hippie in me hates to see progress on 'green energy' slowed, as it really is needed as we try to wean ourselves off fossil fuels.
The decision was based on the fact that the company hadn't applied for a "take" permit from the Feds. Do you know if that's easy or hard to get, especially considering the Indiana Bat is an Endangered Species?
How many native and migratory birds must die below these wind guilliotines?
Bats are only noticed because they are Endangered.
We failed on the Ozone and we didn't save one single whale...but we could save these creatures from these inefficent electrical generators...
The bottom line on these wind mills for single dwellings?...
HOA's and zoning regs are saying they are an eyesore and are preventing their use...
non-zoned areas are a temporary use venue...not worth the time and money to install...
we have put them on the back-burner as a feature of our Green Builds..
Hmm. Kill migratory birds and bats with blades on one hand, or kill freshwater streams and water ways with coal byproducts, mercury or spills from containment ponds..
What a conundrum. I guess the question is do you prefer fish, or chicken?
This won't be a problem if someone doesn't get a handle on this white-nose disease. Bats are important for mosquito control, mosquitoes keep me in the house from June-Oct., I could use a few bats. Seems the mosquito has exploded in the past few years, no longer a night time problem, mine start feeding at 8am and stop somewhere around 5am. Not that I'm against power stations, I think the disease is more of a threat.
Winter populations at the caves went from 55,084 bats to 4,853, a 91 percent drop. But rates differed among different species of bats. For instance, little brown bats dropped by 93 percent while Indiana bats, an endangered species, dropped by 53 percent.
Incidental take permits are hard to get when the species being taken are endangered. This is especially true in the case of the Indiana Bat (Myotis sodalis, in case you were wondering), as it is Federally protected. But then again, federal protection hasn't stopped Walmart from paving over gopher tortoise burrows down south. Just depends on how much money you have, I guess. Walmart pays something like $15,000 for every tortoise they kill. Frankly, I think they should give that $15,000 to the local community and let nerds like me go out with turtle-sniffing dogs (really!) and dig up the 2 or 3 tortoises for relocation that may be in the area instead of paving over them, causing them to starve to death over a period of 8 or 9 months.
But ThreeRun's right (on so many accounts!): the bats are doomed if we don't figure out why they're dying.
As for wind turbines, a lot of things go into their placement: migratory flight paths, wind patterns, proximity to active raptor nests (in Michigan, it's bald eagles, WV has golden eagles too). There are also other 'safeguards' that try to minimize animal mortality, such as a higher 'cut on' speed. That is, the wind has to be blowing at a certain speed to allow the generators to turn on. The higher this speed (at Mt. Storm, it's 6 knots), the lower the mortality. The reasoning is that the windier it is, the less birds and bats are flying. When I was surveying up there, I found dead birds and bats on nights when there was no wind at all and the generators weren't on. In fact, we had a 2 week period where the entire farm was shut down for upgrades to the power lines, system checks, etc. And we found no difference in the number of specimens found between those two weeks and any other two weeks. Its not always the blades that are killing animals. Sometimes they just run into things, like turbines, trees, houses, power lines, cars, etc. Turbines just get a bad rap because they're bigger.
A large wind turbine farm (such as Mt. Storm) kills on average 200-300 animals a year. An outdoor housecat can kill 60 songbirds a year. Maybe we should use housecats for energy...
Considering I'll be flying up through there with my new employ, I wouldn't mind seeing them taken down completely! "...hey, how did this windmill get up here in my cloud...?". Any of you blow up 'yer still, or break yourself sufficiently, you might get a ride-along with me to the nearest hospital.
D'oh! I meant Two-Rivers is right. Sorry 'bout that!
Hinton, I thought I was gonna take a ride in one once. But I got lucky. Still nice to know you're there to get those of us who don't know how to keep to civilized areas out of a tight spot.
I think I've seen a few...but didn't think they were here..
Oregon was loaded with them and we would see them on the Columbia...are they 'stocked here in Wv?
Where are they...Davis?
Will make an effort to watch for them...thanks!
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