Category Archives: energy

Oil, Politics and Lizards

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The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced yesterday that the dunes sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus arenicolus) would not be listed under the Endangered Species Act because voluntary conservation methods undertaken by private landowners in Texas and New Mexico have worked so well.

The most interesting thing about the dunes sagebrush lizard is that its habitat happens to be among the richest oil-producing regions in the lower-48 states. A listing would curtail drilling for oil and gas in the region, so it’s no surprise that the oil industry has fought against a federal listing for the lizard for decades.

Is the decision a victory for the oil industry? For conservation agreements? For the lizard?

That certainly depends on your point of view. You can see two different points of view on display in these articles. The Reuters report buries the information that environmental groups are unhappy with the ruling, and gives only a tepid quote from one of the organizations that disagrees. Read the Reuters piece here.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram puts environmentalists’ displeasure at the top of the story and includes a more forceful quote from the same source. Read the Star-Telegram report here.

A KXAN TV story provides some helpful details.

Photo courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife

Birds, Wind Turbines, and Radar

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In the Tehachapi Mountains north of Los Angeles, migrating birds flow through a canyon “like a living river of birds,” the Los Angeles Times says. These locations are not only attractive to birds, but to wind power developers as well.

These developers are thinking about using radar units and experimental telemetry systems to avoid killing birds, the article says.

The radar systems cost about $500,000, the article reports, and work best in flat, treeless places. (The radar company mentioned in the article, DeTect, Inc. appears to work mostly with airports, which are definitely flat, treeless places.) Several radar units would be needed in a place like the Tehachapi mountain canyon.

The article also mentions linking the telemetry units on individual condors to cut-offs at wind power facilities. If a tagged condor flies too near a wind farm, the rotors stop spinning.

Read the article in the Los Angeles Times, here.
Info on the bird and bat radar systems from DeTect, mentioned in the article, here.

Birds, Wind Turbines, and Radar

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In the Tehachapi Mountains north of Los Angeles, migrating birds flow through a canyon “like a living river of birds,” the Los Angeles Times says. These locations are not only attractive to birds, but to wind power developers as well.

These developers are thinking about using radar units and experimental telemetry systems to avoid killing birds, the article says.

The radar systems cost about $500,000, the article reports, and work best in flat, treeless places. (The radar company mentioned in the article, DeTect, Inc. appears to work mostly with airports, which are definitely flat, treeless places.) Several radar units would be needed in a place like the Tehachapi mountain canyon.

The article also mentions linking the telemetry units on individual condors to cut-offs at wind power facilities. If a tagged condor flies too near a wind farm, the rotors stop spinning.

Read the article in the Los Angeles Times, here.
Info on the bird and bat radar systems from DeTect, mentioned in the article, here.

Prairie Chicken and Sage Grouse Reintroductions

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Male greater prairie chickenGreater prairie chickens are booming again this spring in Wah-Kon-Tah Prairie, Missouri. The species had been extirpated from the area until five years ago when the Missouri Department of Conservation translocated some greater prairie chickens from Kansas.

State biologists studying the birds have learned a lot about their habitat needs and have been surprised by the interplay between the donor population back in Kansas and the newly-established Missouri population.

The restoration offers hope to other states and regions trying to restore the greater prairie chicken, which is an endangered species in Missouri, when there is limited habitat available.

Read more in the Missouri Department of Conservation press release, here.

In Alberta, Canada, a two-year project to relocate some 40 sage grouse from Montana appears to be successful, says an article in the Calgary Herald. Human development, including oil drilling, had nearly wiped the species out in the province. Last year, poor weather hurt the reproduction of the introduced birds, but this year biologists believe the birds are nesting.

Read more in the Calgary Herald.

The key word mentioned in both reintroduction stories: “hopeful.”

Photo: Male greater prairie chicken courtship display, courtesy Missouri Department of Conservation

Solar Flares Over Desert Protection

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Which is more important, to save the global environment or to protect a particular ecosystem?

An article in the Los Angeles Times says that big, national environmental groups are leaning toward saving the planet even at the cost of rare and valuable ecosystems, frustrating local environmental groups who want to preserve those ecosystems.

The current arena is the Mojave Desert, where massive solar projects could provide power to southern California’s throngs, but where the fragile desert and its inhabitants would be better off being left alone.

With the big guns backing the solar projects, the only advocates for animals like the desert tortoise are the small, local enviro groups.

Read the article in the Los Angeles Times.

Photo: Desert tortoise by Rachel London, courtesy of US Fish and Wildlife Service

Sage Grouse on the Brink

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A recent study of sage grouse in northeastern Wyoming says that the population there is just one severe weather event or West Nile outbreak away from extirpation. The study was conducted by three University of Montana wildlife biologists on behalf of the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Read the report, a 46-page PDF, here.
Here’s the BLM web page with links to other info about the report
And here’s the story in the Casper Star-Tribune.

Despite the dire forecast, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission will not close the three-day hunting season in northeastern Wyoming. The reasoning, says a Field & Stream blog post, is that because it is primarily energy development and disease, not hunting, that is causing the birds’ decline, hunters should not be penalized.

The blog post leans heavily on another article from the Casper Star-Tribune. Read that one here. That article notes that state biologists proposed closing the hunting season, but were over-ruled when dozens of people attended the Game and Fish Commission meeting to protest the closing. The article does not note the irony of the citizens who disagreed with the over-ruled scientists saying that the scientists’ recommendation was based on politics.

More troubling than even the possible extirpation of this population, or the politics behind the species’ management, is the fact that the Wyoming sage grouse management plan is the model for the nation. We’ve written about Wyoming’s plan being the national model before:
When a newspaper editorial praised the Wyoming sage grouse management plan;
And when the BLM took the lead on coordinating sage grouse management efforts across its range.

Photo: Greater sage grouse by Stephen Ting. Courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service.

More Info on Solar Power Impacts Needed

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If you have felt lost while trying to evaluate the impact of a solar power project on wildlife, you are not alone. A literature review published in the December issue of BioScience says there is just not enough information out there.

The article focuses on the desert Southwest, but has broader implications. It goes through potential impacts by category, including habitat fragmentation, dust and noise.

You can find the entire article here.

You can read the editor’s note that summarizes the paper and findings here.

And, since the authors are U.S. Geological Survey scientists, you can read the USGS press release, which also summarizes the findings, here.

Photo: A desert tortoise. Photo by: Jeffrey E. Lovich, courtesy USGS

More Info on Solar Power Impacts Needed

Posted on by
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If you have felt lost while trying to evaluate the impact of a solar power project on wildlife, you are not alone. A literature review published in the December issue of BioScience says there is just not enough information out there.

The article focuses on the desert Southwest, but has broader implications. It goes through potential impacts by category, including habitat fragmentation, dust and noise.

You can find the entire article here.

You can read the editor’s note that summarizes the paper and findings here.

And, since the authors are U.S. Geological Survey scientists, you can read the USGS press release, which also summarizes the findings, here.

Photo: A desert tortoise. Photo by: Jeffrey E. Lovich, courtesy USGS