It’s open season for bald eagles under a new proposed federal plan to increase the number birds that can be killed by wind farms and other energy projects.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is publishing a proposed rule Friday upping the number of eagles currently allowed to be incidentally killed by an energy project from 1,130 to 4,200.
The agency says the bald eagle population is healthy enough to sustain added losses.
“We estimate there are about 143,000 bald eagles in the United States, and that populations continue to increase,” according to a pre-publication copy of the proposed rule to be published Friday in the Federal Register. “Given their continued population growth above the 2009 baseline, there is considerable capacity to sustain take of bald eagles.”
It also says that the increase in the eagle population is being followed by an increase in wind energy projects, which increases the likelihood of incidental kills.
“There has also been significant expansion within many sectors of the U.S. energy industry, particularly wind energy operations, and much more interest in permitting new long-term operations than was anticipated when [previous] 2009 regulations were promulgated,” says the notice.
The proposed rule also addresses golden eagles, but it is not changing the number of birds allowed to be killed.
It will keep the golden eagle take level at zero. But for projects that request a permit to kill one of the birds, additional conservation measures will be required, according to the proposal.
The agency estimates that there are only 40,000 golden eagles inhabiting the U.S., about 33,000 fewer than what is considered to be a healthy population.
