Wind farm strikes at eagle stronghold

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) reports that a key population of Europe's largest eagle has been significantly reduced by a wind farm. Only one white-tailed eagle is expected to fledge from the wind farm site on the bird's former stronghold of Smøla, a set of islands about ten kilometres (six miles) off the north-west Norwegian coast. Turbine blades have killed nine of the birds in the last ten months including all three chicks that fledged last year.

The number of young has crashed from at least ten each year before the wind farm was built, with numbers outside the wind farm falling as well - there are no breeding pairs within one kilometre of the turbines.

Scientists now fear that wind farms planned for the rest of Norway - there are more than 100 proposals - could replicate the impact on wildlife of Smøla. Norway is the most important country in the world for white-tailed eagles.

Dr Rowena Langston, Senior Research Biologist at the RSPB said, 'Smøla is demonstrating the damage that can be caused by a wind farm in the wrong location. The RSPB strongly supports renewable energies including wind, but the deaths of adult birds and the three young born last year make the prospects for white-tailed eagles on the island look bleak. The deaths of these birds show just how inadequate existing decision-making processes are for new technologies such as wind farms. Developers and governments should be taking note; these types of impact must be properly considered and acted upon when proposals are first made to avoid the unnecessary losses we are witnessing on Smøla.'

The RSPB is backing a new four-year study at the site by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) to assess the effects of turbines on swans and wading birds such as golden plover, dunlin and whimbrel, and on the ability of white-tailed eagles to adapt to the wind farm.

The RSPB believes climate change poses the greatest long-term threat to wildlife and strongly supports the development of renewable energy including wind farms, so long as they are well sited.