Effect of tower base painting on willow ptarmigan collision rates with wind turbines

Stokke, Bård G.; Nygård, Torgeir; Falkdalen, Ulla; Pedersen, Hans Christian; May, Roelof Frans

doi:10.1002/ece3.6307

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…This study presents the outcomes of the first dedicated in situ experiment extensively testing the efficacy of passive markings to reduce collision mortality at wind turbines (but see Stokke et al., 2020). The annual fatality rate was significantly reduced at the treated turbines by over 70%.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bird fatalities within the entire wind‐power plant included a suite of species with varying susceptibility to collision with the wind turbines. Of these species, willow ptarmigan (excluded from this study as they were expected to collide with the turbine tower, see Stokke et al., 2020) and white‐tailed eagle had the highest number of recorded carcasses. Before the experiment, six white‐tailed eagles were found dead at to‐be‐painted turbines but after painting none.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Eagles are large conspicuous birds and will therefore often catch the attention of passers‐by. Ptarmigan are often found near the turbine base as they are suspected to collide with the actual tower (see Stokke, Nygård, Falkdalen, Pedersen, & May, 2020). Mammalian scavengers do not exist on the island of Smøla, minimizing any removal bias.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To test for the potential effect of birds potentially being forced toward neighboring turbines due to deterrence from painted turbines, we first verified whether these controls (as “pseudo‐impact” turbines) differed significantly in annual fatality rates from other untreated turbines (as unrelated controls) before–after treatment. Willow ptarmigan carcasses were excluded from the analyses as these are known to collide with the tower base (see Stokke et al., 2020).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paint it black: Efficacy of increased wind turbine rotor blade visibility to reduce avian fatalities

May

Nygård

Falkdalen³

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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As wind energy deployment increases and larger wind‐power plants are considered, bird fatalities through collision with moving turbine rotor blades are expected to increase. However, few (cost‐) effective deterrent or mitigation measures have so far been developed to reduce the risk of collision. Provision of “passive” visual cues may enhance the visibility of the rotor blades enabling birds to take evasive action in due time. Laboratory experiments have indicated that painting one of three rotor blades black minimizes motion smear (Hodos 2003, Minimization of motion smear: Reducing avian collisions with wind turbines). We tested the hypothesis that painting would increase the visibility of the blades, and that this would reduce fatality rates in situ, at the Smøla wind‐power plant in Norway, using a Before–After–Control–Impact approach employing fatality searches. The annual fatality rate was significantly reduced at the turbines with a painted blade by over 70%, relative to the neighboring control (i.e., unpainted) turbines. The treatment had the largest effect on reduction of raptor fatalities; no white‐tailed eagle carcasses were recorded after painting. Applying contrast painting to the rotor blades significantly reduced the collision risk for a range of birds. Painting the rotor blades at operational turbines was, however, resource demanding given that they had to be painted while in‐place. However, if implemented before construction, this cost will be minimized. It is recommended to repeat this experiment at other sites to ensure that the outcomes are generic at various settings.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Paint it black: Efficacy of increased wind turbine rotor blade visibility to reduce avian fatalities

May

Nygård

Falkdalen³

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

Self Cite

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“…It is also likely that some species, based simply on life history, primarily collide with turbine poles and rarely collide with blades themselves [6,20,93]. Carcasses of low-flying upland game birds, which are unlikely to ever fly into the rotor zone, have been routinely found during carcass searches [34,[94][95][96][97] and Stokke et al [98] found substantial evidence that willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) frequently collide with turbine poles in Norway. Further, the distance distribution for willow ptarmigan mirrored ours, showing a high peak directly next to the turbine pole (Fig 3) [98].…”

Section: Differences Between Birds and Batsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An evaluation of bird and bat mortality at wind turbines in the Northeastern United States

2020

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Wind energy offers substantial environmental benefits, but wind facilities can negatively impact wildlife, including birds and bats. Researchers and managers have made major efforts to chronicle bird and bat mortality associated with wind facilities, but few studies have examined the patterns and underlying mechanisms of spatial patterns of fatalities at wind facilities. Understanding the horizontal fall distance between a carcass and the nearest turbine pole is important in designing effective search protocols and estimating total mortality. We explored patterns in taxonomic composition and fall distance of bird and bat carcasses at wind facilities in the Northeastern United States using publicly available data and data submitted to the US Fish and Wildlife Service under scientific collecting and special purpose utility permits for collection and study of migratory birds. Forty-four wind facilities reported 2,039 bird fatalities spanning 128 species and 22 facilities reported 418 bat fatalities spanning five species. Relative to long-distance migratory birds, short-distance migrants were found farther from turbines. Body mass of birds and bats positively influenced fall distance. Turbine size positively influenced fall distance of birds and bats when analyzed collectively and of birds when analyzed separately from bats. This suggests that as turbines increase in size, a greater search radius will be necessary to detect carcasses. Bird and bat fall distance distributions were notably multimodal, but only birds exhibited a high peak near turbine bases, a novel finding we attribute to collisions with turbine poles in addition to blades. This phenomenon varied across bird species, with potential implications for the accuracy of mortality estimates. Although pole collisions for birds is intuitive, this phenomenon has not been formally recognized. This finding may warrant an updated view of turbines as a collision threat to birds because they are a tall structure, and not strictly as a function of their motion.

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Demographic and potential biological removal models identify raptor species sensitive to current and future wind energy

et al. 2021

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A central challenge in applied ecology is understanding the effect of anthropogenic fatalities on wildlife populations and predicting which populations may be particularly vulnerable and in greatest need of management attention. We used three approaches to investigate the potential effects of fatalities from collisions with wind turbines on 14 raptor species for both current (106 GW) and anticipated future (241 GW) levels of installed wind energy capacity in the United States. Our goals were to identify species at relatively high vs low risk of experiencing population declines from turbine collisions and to also compare results generated from these approaches. Two of the approaches used a calculated turbine-caused mortality rate to decrement population growth, where population trends were derived either from the North American Breeding Bird Survey or from a matrix model parameterized from literature-derived demographic values. The third approach was potential biological removal, which estimates the number of fatalities that allow a population to reach and maintain its optimal sustainable population set by management objectives. Different results among the methods reveal substantial gaps in knowledge and uncertainty in both demographic parameters and species-specific estimates of fatalities from wind turbines. Our results suggest that, of the 14 species studied, those with relatively higher potential of population-level impacts from wind turbine collisions included barn owl, ferruginous hawk, golden eagle, American kestrel, and red-tailed hawk. Burrowing owl, Cooper's hawk, great horned owl, northern harrier, turkey vulture, and osprey had a relatively lower potential for population impacts, and results were not easily interpretable for merlin, prairie falcon, and Swainson's hawk. Projections of current levels of fatalities to future wind energy scenarios at 241 GW of installed capacity suggest some species could experience population declines because of turbine collisions. Populations of those species may benefit from research to identify tools to prevent or reduce raptor collisions with wind turbines.

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Effect of tower base painting on willow ptarmigan collision rates with wind turbines

Cited by 16 publications

References 38 publications

Paint it black: Efficacy of increased wind turbine rotor blade visibility to reduce avian fatalities

Paint it black: Efficacy of increased wind turbine rotor blade visibility to reduce avian fatalities

An evaluation of bird and bat mortality at wind turbines in the Northeastern United States

Demographic and potential biological removal models identify raptor species sensitive to current and future wind energy

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