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JVAS Works with Municipalities
To Craft Industrial Windplant Ordinances
By JVAS Conservation Chair Dr. Stan Kotala
Thousands of industrial-scale wind turbines are planned for Pennsylvania’s forested ridges to meet renewable energy goals mandated by our state legislature. Conservationists should be aware of the threat that huge numbers of these 400+ foot-tall turbines and their associated heavy-duty roads, transmission-line corridors, and substations pose to the Keystone State’s forested ridges. Four thousand industrial-scale wind turbines on 500 miles of ridgetop would be required to meet just 10 percent of the Commonwealth’s electricity demand.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes three broad impacts of industrial windplants: direct mortality to birds and bats, forest fragmentation, and the inducement of avoidance behavior.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission writes:
“Wind farms have emerged as a new threat to species associated with higher elevation forests — particularly bats and birds. Studies at the Mountaineer wind-power site in West Virginia have yielded numerous dead bats of several species within a span of a few weeks. Given that many of these bats likely are migrants from the Pennsylvania region or from farther north, and that the number of wind-power sites in West Virginia and in Pennsylvania is increasing rapidly, the long-term impact on population levels may be quite severe.
“The installation of wind turbines at various ridgetop locations across the Commonwealth also is a cause of current concern for golden eagles and other migratory raptors. It has been demonstrated at Altamont Pass, California that such facilities can cause direct mortality of golden eagles. Golden eagles migrate during periods of low thermal lift, which makes them dependent on ridge updrafts.”
According to the Pennsylvania Biological Survey:
“Another important — and often overlooked — impact of wind development is habitat fragmentation and its associated effects. These effects include reduced habitat area; habitat isolation and loss of species from an area; disruption of dispersal; increased edge effects and loss of core habitat; and facilitation of invasive species.
“Due to their linearity, roads and transmission lines — both of which accompany wind energy development — have particularly pronounced fragmentation effects.
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommends that wind energy development ‘avoid fragmenting large, contiguous tracts of wildlife habitat’ and advises that wind turbines be placed ‘on lands already altered or cultivated, and away from areas of intact and healthy native habitats.’ ”
To protect our most critical ridge habitats from this new form of development, the JVAS has been working with municipalities to craft ordinances protecting Important Bird Areas, Important Mammal Areas, and County Natural Heritage Areas from the extensive forest fragmentation that industrial windplants require for their construction and maintenance. These ordinances also have blocked the construction of industrial windplants on major raptor migration routes.
The JVAS has organized numerous public education events to inform citizens and municipal leaders about the severe impacts that improperly sited industrial windplants are having on our forested ridges. Our chapter has been successful in preventing the construction of industrial windplants in the Canoe Creek Watershed IBA and the Canoe Creek IMA in Blair and Huntingdon Counties; the Bald Eagle Ridge IBA in Blair, Huntingdon, and Centre Counties; and the Shade Mountain County Natural Heritage Area in Huntingdon County. An imminent threat, however, is the DCNR’s decision to pursue industrial windplant development on Pennsylvania’s State Forest lands.
About a dozen municipalities have adopted some version of the Juniata Valley Audubon Model Industrial Windplant Ordinance, one of which is available online at http://blair.pacounties.org/AntisTwp/Documents/2006_wind_turbine_ordinance.pdf.
If you have any questions or need more information, please call or e-mail JVAS Conservation Chair Dr. Stan Kotala at 814 946-8840 or ccwiba@keyconn.net.