Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Staff Summary 2012
www.dfw.state.or.us/…/Exhibit…
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
selected by the United States Congress in 1782 as a national symbol, famously ….. Repository does not maintain records of the state of origin of carcasses received … Repository has received 3,048 bald and golden eagles recovered dead in …
(Note: The 38,750 carcasses is not an annual number; it is the total between January 1, 1997 and June 30, 2012. To the best of my knowledge there is nothing in the Repository records or carcasses to support his claims about numbers killed by poachers, pesticides or lead poisoning. Moreover, many of the transmission lines involved in eagle deaths are directly related to wind turbines and carry their intermittent electricity to urban areas.)
Conclusion: What needs to happen now
This is a national disgrace – and a clear violation of endangered species and other laws – that must no longer be tolerated. The public has a right to know the facts.
The courts must reject the PacifiCorp request that eagle mortality data be kept confidential and hidden from public scrutiny.
Congress, the news media, environmental groups and concerned citizens everywhere must demand that the information be released in its entirety. They must also insist that steps be taken to end the slaughter, punish transgressors, and stop permitting and subsidizing further wind turbine installations, until the industry can demonstrate that new turbine designs will not kill and maim more bald and golden eagles.
Every industry must be treated the same under our endangered species, migratory bird and other laws. Merely because an industry claims to be eco-friendly, to produce “clean, renewable” energy, or to help reduce man-made global climate change must no longer excuse it from complying with laws that all other citizens and companies must follow.
