[Pollinator] Bat Article

[Ladadams@aol.com]

Wind Generator to Use Fire to Examine Bats

January 20, 2006 — By John Raby, Associated Press 
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The nation's largest generator of wind power plans to use 
fire to study bat habitats. 

FPL Energy LLC operates 43 wind farms in 15 states, including the Mountaineer 
Wind Energy Center in Tucker County. The company is teaming up with an 
environmental engineering firm and the U.S. Forest Service's Northeastern Research 
Station on the conservation project. 

The project involves prescribed burning in a 4,000-acre experimental forest 
in Tucker County. The region is home to seven species of bats, including the 
federally endangered Indiana bat. 

Researchers hope to develop conditions to maximize the bats' use of oak tree 
bark and foliage as summer day roosts. Oak trees are fire resistant while 
others like sugar and red maples are not. 

"Several bat species look for that kind of structure in their dayroost habit, 
but they also like where the canopy is a little more open and receive quite a 
bit of sun," said Mark Ford, a research wildlife biologist with the Forest 
Service. 

FPL Energy also is funding a project in which gates will be installed and 
evaluated for their impact on cave bats at the University of Central Oklahoma's 
Selman Living Laboratory. 

The two are among 27 potential bat projects that the company has identified 
in seven states. 

Wind power is one of the fastest-growing sources of renewable energy but it 
poses a dilemma for environmentalists, who support its pollution-free 
electricity but have grown increasingly alarmed at its death toll on birds and bats. 

A study last year of the 44-turbine Mountaineer wind farm estimated that at 
least 1,364 bats were killed there during a six-week period in 2004. 

"We think that it's incumbent upon us to learn as much as we can about bats 
just as our company and our industry has done with birds over the years," said 
Steve Stengel, spokesman for Juno Beach, Fla.-based FPL Energy LLC. "We view 
this as a natural extension of our learning." 

Stengel said the conservation projects are unrelated to wind-farm operations. 

"These were projects that were in the works before FPL Energy ever became 
involved. We're providing funding to get these projects over the finish line," he 
said. "If we're able to help fund it and help learn something about bat 
conservation, then everybody wins." 

Source: Associated Press 

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Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
www.coevolution.org
www.nappc.org

Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.
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