Birds+power lines=electrifying problem

From the Chicago Tribune - Posted by Frank James

The Interior Department held a press conference this morning on a problem many people, myself included, haven't really given much thought to: the electrocution of birds on power lines. Though there are no good numbers, it is estimated that any where from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of birds are killed each year. Some of the species killed are protected species, like eagles, condors, hawks and migratory birds.

The press conference was held to highlight the release of the updated version of a conservation document, a 227-page publication titled "Suggested Practices for Avian Protection on Power Lines: The State of the Art in 2006," that resulted from federal and private sector cooperation.

These are the sorts of Best Management Practices that we are seeking to compile. Should you know of any such works relating to your area of interest relating to wildlife, we would love it if you would share them with us!

Florida has 18 million + residents and 80 million + tourists that visit our state each year. The great majority of this growth has occurred within my relatively short life. If projections are correct, in about the same number of years our population will jump to 36 million and several hundred million tourists will yearly need accommodations. Remembering that a great part of Florida is a water bounded peninsula without relative connectivity adjacent landmasses or wildlife populations - you can begin to picture likely wildlife sustainability issues that may emerge as the landscape is further sliced and diced by many new roads, homes and businesses.

We have to account for this now and work diligently to build our roads, homes and businesses to incorporate natural habitat and wildlife. As this year (2006) comes to a close there are a great many plans being floated to develop a slew of new major road corridors – the State Department of Transportation along with a host of regional transportation planning entities are laying plans for many miles of new roads. Each new road will enlarge accessibility to previously less accessible land and with the easy access will follow many more homes and businesses.
Presently the lists of environmental Criteria that must be considered as these road corridors are pondered include the following:
• The presence of and potential impacts on conservation lands currently under public or private ownership or proposed for ownership;
• The presence of and potential impacts on surface waters including Outstanding Florida Waters, Aquatic preserves, Class 1 and Class 2 Waters, springs and spring sheds;
• The presence of and potential impacts on coastal and marine environments, including mangrove swamps and coastal salt marshes;
• The presence of and potential impacts on wetlands, including marine/salt marsh, bay heads, riverine swamps, pitcher plant prairies, and seepage slopes;
• The presence of and potential impacts on threatened and endangered habitat, including specific high-priority areas defined by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory and other partners;
• Potential air quality impacts; and
• Potential energy consumption impacts.

Though a variety of specific habitat types are mentioned, it is interesting to me that wildlife per se has to be “threatened or endangered” to be generally factored into the road planning equations. As the basic calculations are money driven, the heat is on minimizing wildlife avoidance or mitigation issues. Species that are not threatened or endangered today, for example the Florida Burrowing Owl, may not rise high enough in the road building avoidance and mitigation calculus to merit concern or design alterations.

Even with well intended and designed review systems in place such as ETDM and PD&E the magnitude of road building planned for the limited Florida landscape presents Florida Wildlife with a daunting future.

In October 2006 we went to Tampa to meet with Greg Howe, a Naturalist working for the City’s Parks & Recreation Department. Tampa. The trip was quite interesting.

Tampa and the majority of the north end of Hillsborough County as well as large parts of adjoining Pasco County are being subdivided and developed under various large Planned Unit Developments (PUDs) and Developments of Regional Impact (DRIs). A map of the various developments looks like a jig-saw puzzle where very little, if any, of the original natural habitats will remain open or unaffected by the development. After a buildout of the area the only remaining wildlife habitat will be

Greg’s job is to work with each of these landowners/developers as they go through the development review processes and to try to implement the City’s Upland Habitat Protection requirements such that some useful and logical habitat may remain after development occurs. This is no easy task. The developer of course, is trying to maximize use of every acre of land to get as many developable units as possible. From a natural plant and wildlife perspective over the long-term, Greg’s work has most lasting value if he can cobble together enough area, linking from one development to the next, such that some wildlife and plant communities will stand a change of sustaining viable populations into our future. Click Here for a more complete description of the trip and Tampa's Upland Habitat Protection  Ordinance.