Wyoming’s Golden Eagles are in trouble and need the protection of the Endangered Species Act. That things are going badly for the eagles is no secret but the Wyoming authorities are ignoring this rapidly growing threat.
Incredibly, Golden Eagle numbers in Wyoming have declined by nearly a third over the past 20 years according to Teton Raptor Center conservation director Bryan Bedrosian. This precipitous population drop is clearly serious and must be stopped. Wyoming is America’s Golden Eagle population center so what happens there potentially affects us all.
Bedrosian warned the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission last October that “We have a quarter of the breeding population of golden eagles in the western United States. We host roughly half of the migrants that come down from Alaska and Canada.”
Another important example is “Comments on Environmental Assessment of the Two Rivers Wind Energy Project on behalf of National Audubon Society and the Wyoming Outdoor Council.”
Here is their special warning with respect to wind power development:
“Wyoming is home to the largest breeding population of Golden Eagles in the lower 48 states and provides critical habitat for wintering and migrating individuals; the state contains some of the most valuable areas for long-term conservation in the western United States.”
“Inadequate protections in a Golden Eagle stronghold experiencing high growth in wind development risks the project area becoming a “population sink” (aka: ecological trap) – an area Golden Eagles are strongly attracted to where they experience high mortality, leading to continued population level declines. When year-round breeding eagles experience mortalities, “floater” eagles are likely to be the ones that fill territory vacancies, which themselves also face the same fate, a downward population spiral becomes possible.”
These dire warnings and many others like them have been ignored by the relevant authorities so it is time to call in the Endangered Species Act.
The Endangered Species Act recognizes two levels of risk to critical populations — endangered and threatened. Endangered means the population is on the verge of extinction. A population is threatened if it is heading for endangered and Wyoming’s Golden Eagles certainly fit that description.
Once a threatened population is listed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) identifies the critical habitat that needs to be conserved in order to protect that population. The Audubon Society comments above allude to this long-term conservation of critical habitat.
Development within the critical habitat is allowed but it is subject to habitat conservation planning coordinated with FWS. This is the kind of planning that Wyoming authorities have ignored.
Of special concern is the so-called Wyoming Wind Wall. This is a 200 mile long area in Southeast Wyoming where almost continuous wind farm development is presently being proposed by an array of independent developers.
This kind of unplanned, uncoordinated and reckless industrial development on a massive scale is potentially just the sort of ecological death trap the Audubon Society warns about. Wind power development may have already contributed to the huge Golden Eagle population losses reported by Bedrosian.
The Wyoming authorities have systematically ignored the cumulative impact of massive scale industrial wind power development. Listing the Wyoming population of Golden Eagles as threatened under the Endangered Species Act may be the only way to save them.
Image U.S. Fish & Wildlife Public Domain