{"id":391410,"date":"2025-07-29T12:07:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T10:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=391410"},"modified":"2025-07-29T12:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T10:07:14","slug":"fws-is-violating-its-own-eagle-kill-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=391410","title":{"rendered":"FWS is violating its own eagle-kill regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By David Wojick<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Eagle bird flying on sunset sky abstract background. Animal and freedom concept. Generative ai<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every on-land wind project requires a permit to kill eagles from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). These permits are based on an offset program in which eagle deaths are supposedly offset by saving the lives of other eagles by making power poles safer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent study I found that this offset program is not working. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

See the report here:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.cfact.org\/2025\/06\/29\/cfact-report-feds-fail-to-offset-wind-turbine-eagle-kills\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that failure to verify that this offset program is working is a deep violation of FWS\u2019s own regulations. The regulations passed in 2016 clearly contemplate the possibility of offset program failure and require the FWS to track program effectiveness. FWS has done no such thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is not in compliance with its own permitting regulations, so permitting should stop until compliance is achieved. Existing permits to kill eagles should also be declared invalid, since they are based upon an offset practice that has not been shown to work and cannot work in its present form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The offset program is called compensatory mitigation because the wind project owner pays to mitigate the eagle deaths caused by its project. The money is used to make power poles safe from electrocuting eagles, supposedly in numbers of eagles that are equal to or greater than the number killed by the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The permitting regulations require FWS monitoring of the effectiveness of compensatory mitigation, which they have not done. It is the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the relevant regulatory requirements. The eagle-kill permits specify the required compensatory mitigation actions and measures:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u201cSection 22.220 Compensatory mitigation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(b) All required compensatory mitigation actions must:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(4) Use the best available science in formulating, crediting, and monitoring the long-term effectiveness of mitigation measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(7) Include mechanisms to account for and address uncertainty and risk of failure of a compensatory mitigation measure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Regulation\u2019s Environmental Impact Statement spells it out in more detail:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCompensatory mitigation must be based on the best available science and must use rigorous compliance and effectiveness monitoring and evaluation to make certain that mitigation measures achieve their intended outcomes, or that necessary changes are implemented to achieve them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though the Regulations specifically refer to the risk of failure, FWS has done no effectiveness monitoring of the compensatory mitigation measures. Given that approximately 30,000 wind turbines have been permitted to kill eagles, this is noncompliance on an enormous scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, as I explain in my report, it is virtually certain that the compensatory mitigation program is highly ineffective. Here is why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe likely cause of this failure is FWS\u2019s use of a wildly inaccurate electrocution death rate. As a result, the number of power poles made \u201csafe\u201d is just a tiny fraction of what would be required to create a legitimate offset. While FWS currently requires about 278 poles to be \u201cmade safe\u201d per wind-killed eagle, the correct number, according to the results presented in this report, may be closer to 67,000.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If FWS wants to use an offset program for wind turbines killing eagles, it must first do the research to establish the effectiveness of the offset measures. The present program is based on a single small 2010 study, with results so extreme as to be questionable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research must be done before offsets can be used to permit wind power killing eagles under the Eagle Protection Act. As things stand, FWS is deeply violating its own permitting regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every on-land wind project requires a permit to kill eagles from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). These permits are based on an offset program in which eagle deaths are supposedly offset by saving the lives of other eagles by making power poles safer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":391414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691822525,691834914,691836154,691823530,691818322],"class_list":{"0":"post-391410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-dead-eagles","9":"tag-eagle-protection-act","10":"tag-u-s-fish-and-wildlife-service-fws","11":"tag-wind-projects","12":"tag-wind-turbines","14":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/AQNgLB579Q5oKhylucHpm1MHkNOUEQJyLOpusLQG2PEp2Q7d7jrCSdsNWsMrT0R52mB9ESTRcwEPXoqZCNFg2ki7MEiiAzr_A0VeGsK_dYjLVR6BENcamN_-uCBBp_VYdoMUuzc6RLDJf9KhSorR2YwqoaGgLQ.jpeg?fit=1280%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1DP4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":406248,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=406248","url_meta":{"origin":391410,"position":0},"title":"Feds deaf to eagle-kill warning","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/10\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Land-based wind turbines kill golden eagles, so every turbine requires an Eagle Protection Act permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to kill them.","rel":"","context":"In \"500 golden eagles a year\"","block_context":{"text":"500 golden eagles a year","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=500-golden-eagles-a-year"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPy8AkFW5mDC3Hi6b-dK_FeAGa2DnRIzBclveOWP6oaOSugkIaZ8Tr_VsC1D6rImS7VACC4-iiZIGL1aD2rY-HtIUt6wn92vqJbQv5n9YVbDNd5EmzYdJOlIhE88pUU-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPy8AkFW5mDC3Hi6b-dK_FeAGa2DnRIzBclveOWP6oaOSugkIaZ8Tr_VsC1D6rImS7VACC4-iiZIGL1aD2rY-HtIUt6wn92vqJbQv5n9YVbDNd5EmzYdJOlIhE88pUU-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPy8AkFW5mDC3Hi6b-dK_FeAGa2DnRIzBclveOWP6oaOSugkIaZ8Tr_VsC1D6rImS7VACC4-iiZIGL1aD2rY-HtIUt6wn92vqJbQv5n9YVbDNd5EmzYdJOlIhE88pUU-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPy8AkFW5mDC3Hi6b-dK_FeAGa2DnRIzBclveOWP6oaOSugkIaZ8Tr_VsC1D6rImS7VACC4-iiZIGL1aD2rY-HtIUt6wn92vqJbQv5n9YVbDNd5EmzYdJOlIhE88pUU-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQPy8AkFW5mDC3Hi6b-dK_FeAGa2DnRIzBclveOWP6oaOSugkIaZ8Tr_VsC1D6rImS7VACC4-iiZIGL1aD2rY-HtIUt6wn92vqJbQv5n9YVbDNd5EmzYdJOlIhE88pUU-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":417799,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=417799","url_meta":{"origin":391410,"position":1},"title":"Wind turbine eagle-kill secrecy may soon end","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"19\/12\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A new lawsuit could finally end the secrecy surrounding wind turbines killing eagles. 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