Wildlife and Utility-Scale

Wind Energy Development of the

Central Appalachians within

Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and

West Virginia—the Risks and Trade-offs

Hosted by the

Department of Geography

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

Kutztown, Pennsylvania

December 2, 2006

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Morning Session

WELCOME REMARKS

8:00 AM          Dr. F. Javier Cevallos--President of Kutztown University—Brief welcome.

8:05 AM          Dr. Percy H. Dougherty, Dept. of Geography, Kutztown University— Welcoming remarks.

INTRODUCTION

8:10 AM          Rick Webb and Dan Boone—Pending Utility-Scale Wind Energy Development in the Appalachian Region.

ETHICAL AND LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING UTILITY-SCALE WIND ENERGY FACILITIES SITING

8:20 AM          Dr. Priscilla N. Cohn—Ethics, Wildlife, and Potential Siting of Utility-Scale Wind Energy Facilities on Appalachian Ridges.

8:40 AM          Eric R. Glitzenstein, Esq.—Federal Wildlife Laws and Wind Power.

SPECIAL CONCERNS WITH UTILITY-SCALE WIND ENERGY EXPANSION

9:00 AM         Dr. Albert Manville—Using Pre-, During-, and Post-Construction Monitoring to Assess Risk at Mountain Wind Development Sites.

9:20 AM          Dr. Brian Mangan—Wind Energy and Site Evaluation in Pennsylvania.

9:40 AM          David Riposo—Costs and Benefits of Wind Energy:  Toward a sustainable energy future for the Mid Atlantic.

10:00 AM        Dan Boone—An Evaluation of the Claimed Benefits From Industrial Wind Energy Development of the Appalachian Region: What We Get in Exchange for Environmental Harm.

RAPTORS AND UTILITY-SCALE WIND ENERGY EXPANSION

10:20 AM        Donald S. Heintzelman—From Hawk Shooting to DDT to Wind Turbines: Historic Raptor Perspectives Regarding Utility-Scale Wind Energy Facilities Siting on Pennsylvania’s Appalachian Ridges.

10:40 AM        Dr. Christopher Farmer—Counts and Flight Altitudes of Migratory Raptors at Hawk Mountain, Pennsylvania.

11:00 AM        Kim Van Fleet—Potential Impacts of Wind Turbines on Golden Eagles, other Raptors and Birds along the Ridges of Pennsylvania.

11:20 AM        Sandy Hevener & Patti Reum—Citizen Science:  Grass-Roots Effort Fills-In Critical Data Gaps.

Afternoon Session

BATS AND UTILITY-SCALE WIND ENERGY EXPANSION

1:20 PM          Dr. Thomas Kunz—Methods for Assessing Presence and Activity of Birds and Bats and Wind Energy Facilities.

1:40 PM          Dr. Michael Gannon—The Current Status of Bat Surveys in Pre-and Post-Wind  Farm Construction: What Do They Tell Us?

2:00 PM          Carol Peterson and Rick Lambert—Bat Studies in Highland County, Virginia and Pendleton County, West Virginia.

ADVANCED WILDLIFE RESEARCH METHODS USED AT WIND ENERGY SITES

2:40 PM          Bill Evans—Monitoring Avian Nocturnal Migration Activity Using Radar and Acoustic Methods.

3:20 PM          Dan Boone—Using GIS Technology To Evaluate Forest Habitat and Public Land Impacts of Wind Energy Development.

LOCAL CONCERNS ABOUT PROPOSED UTILITY-SCALE WIND ENERGY SITES ON FORESTED APPALACHIAN RIDGES

3:40 PM          Laura Jackson—A Case Study of Save Our Allegheny Ridges (SOAR): Citizen Involvement in Potential Siting of Proposed Utility-Scale Wind Energy Facilities on Forested Ridges in Bedford County, Pennsylvania.

SECURING INFORMATION: EDUCATING THE PUBLIC ABOUT WIND ENERGY PROJECTS, POLICIES AND TRADE-OFFS

4:00 PM          Alan Gregory—The Media and Wind Power.

4:20 PM          Jonathan and Lisa Linowes—The WindAction.org Website and Its National Role.

CURRENT WIND ENERGY POLICIES OF STATE WILDLIFE AGENCIES

4:40 PM          William Capouillez—Pennsylvania Game Commission; Commercial Wind Development on Pennsylvania State Game Lands – Review Guidelines.

4:50 PM          Andrew K. Zadnik—Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fish; Virginia’s Experience with Industrial Wind Development.

CURRENT WIND ENERGY POLICIES OF NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

5:00 PM          Dr. Michael Fry—American Bird Conservancy; Avoiding and Mitigating Wind-turbine Mortality and Habitat Loss and ABC’s wind energy policy

5:10 PM          Dr. Keith Bildstein—Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association; Raptors and Wind Energy and HSMA’s position regarding wind energy

5:20 PM          Kim Van Fleet— Audubon Pennsylvania; Ridgetop Important Bird Areas, Raptors, and Wind Turbines

CONFERENCE CLOSING

6:00 PM          Donald S. Heintzelman – Closing Remarks.

Other weblinks of potential interest regarding wind energy guidelines, policies, or wildlife concerns:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “Interim Guidelines to Avoid and Minimize Wildlife Impacts from Wind Turbines” (10 July 2003)

GAO Report - Wind Power: Impacts on Wildlife and Government Responsibilities for Regulating Development and Protecting Wildlife (September 2005); executive summary

USGS-USFWS Poster - Assessing Patterns of Nocturnal Bird Migration through the Appalachian Region (2006)

Resolution on Wind Turbines by the Board of Directors of the Hawk Migration Association of North America (20 November 2004)

Resolution on Wind Power by the Board of Directors of Wildlife Information Center (24 July 2006)

Letter of 24 June 2003 to Secretary Gail Norton, US Department of Interior, on behalf of a broad coalition of national and regional groups concerned with potential impact on migratory birds of wind power projects built along Appalachian mountain ridges

Windpower and Migrating Raptors: An Unresolved Issue

Improper Industrial Windplant Siting Threatens Pennsylvania Ridgetops

When Blade Meets Bat – Unexpected Bat Kills Threaten Future Wind Farms; Scientific American (February 2004)

Wind Energy & the Threat to Bats; Bats magazine (Summer 2004)

Battered By Harsh Winds – Must Bats Pay the Price for Wind Energy? Bats magazine (Fall 2005)

Impacts of Wind Energy Development on Wildlife - Key Issues of Concern; Prepared by Bat Conservation International (6 January 2006)

Bat and Wind Energy Cooperative

Virginia Wind