A Campaign That's For The Birds

Wildlife Advocates Seek To Curb Raptor Deaths At Calif. Wind Farm

(AP)  A county judge this week allowed the lawsuit to move forward; the case could go to trial by late this year. The Board of Supervisors is expected to decide next week whether to force the operators to adopt measures to curb bird deaths, such as closing for the winter or scrapping the most lethal turbines.

"This industry has always wrapped itself in the mantle of green power and has sought to use the environmental benefits of wind power as an excuse for not doing anything about the environmental harms it causes," said Rick Wiebe, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs.

When some of the nation's first industrial windmills went up in the Altamont Pass more than two decades ago, few people thought seriously about the birds — even though the region is a major migratory corridor and hunting ground for raptors that prey on its abundant squirrels, gophers and rabbits.

Industry officials point out that turbines are only responsible for a tiny portion of human-caused bird deaths, compared with buildings, plate-glass windows, automobiles, pesticides and house cats.

"There are a bunch of other sources that are killing hundreds or thousands of times as many birds as wind turbines," said Tom Gray, AWEA's deputy executive director. "I don't want to minimize Altamont. It's definitely a legitimate problem what's happening with raptors there. But wind is not a threat to birds in general."

Still, windmill owners have taken steps to reduce bird deaths in the area. FPL Energy, which runs about half the Altamont's turbines, has already removed about 100 of its most deadly windmills and replaced another 169 with 31 larger, high-tech towers, said spokesman Steven Stengel.