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Environmental Impact of W ind Projects 251

that are abundant around turbines, but have rare cases of fatalities, in-
clude, crows, ravens, and vultures. Three factors play a significant role
in bird and bat fatalities: Abundance of species, behavior of species,
and wind project site-related factors. Wind project site-related factors
that lead to higher fatalities include landscapes that are conducive to
nesting, feeding, preying, and flying.
Endangered species and their habitats may be impacted by clear-
ing of land and operation of wind turbines. Since all agencies of the
US government are required to participate in conservation of endan-
gered species, an early determination of the potential existence of
endangered species is important.
Impact on wildlife is managed by a variety of governmental agen-
cies. In the United States, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
is the lead agency that must be contacted to assess the impact of wind
turbines on migratory birds, threatened and endangered species, and
their habitats. Although USFWS will be in the lead, other agencies
are likely to be involved. Nonmigratory birds are the domain of state
governments. The US Army Corp of Engineers is the lead agency if
the site contains Wetlands.
In 2007, the USFWS Wind turbine guidelines advisory committee 4
was formed to develop “effective measures to avoid or minimize im-
pact to wildlife and their habitats related to land-based wind energy
facilities.” It has released a 6.1 draft recommendation to the Secre-
5
tary of the Interior. In it, a tiered approach is proposed for assessing
the adverse impact on wildlife and their habitat. In contrast to a one-
size-fits-all, the tiered approach tailors amount of required evaluation
based on location of project, scale of project, and the potential for sig-
nificant adverse impact. Figure 12-1 is a flowchart of the assessment
process. This is a three-step process:

1. Thefirststepineachtierisalistofquestionsthataprojectmust
answer in the tier. The guidelines contain a list of suggested
questions for each tier, and the project chooses questions that
are appropriate for the project.
2. The second step in each tier is to: (a) Define methods to collect
data in order to answer the questions and (b) define metrics
to make decisions.
3. In the third step, methods and metrics are used to make deci-
sions with three possible outcomes:
a. Abandon the project because it poses high degree of risk
for adverse impact to wildlife.
b. Proceed with the project because a determination has been
made that there is a low probability of adverse impact to
wildlife from the wind project.