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Dear Editor;
Did you know we have quite a few golden eagles in our community? Everyone sees the bald eagles, and I am very fortunate to have nests very close to where I live. But lately we have seen more and more golden eagles flying over and you can tell because they look just like bald eagles, they are as large as an adult bald eagle, but without the white tail and head. Will the wind towers drive out our eagles? How will the Pattern Energy wind farm impact our eagles which are protected by "The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (16 U.S.C. 668-668c), and make sure their nesting areas are not disturbed?"
Bats are particularly vulnerable to wind towers, but it will be difficult to know how many the spinning blades will kill. The DNR has gone to great lengths to protect the bats in the Ludden Lake cave, and I have tried not the disturb the colony that resides in my barn during the summer. Will the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources be able to protect our eagles and the bats from the 650' wind towers? I doubt it and I suspect hard data will be ignored in favor of reified models created with bias data. So is it really about protecting our environment, or is it about driving a political agenda and big money?
Dave Knapp
Mineral Point, WI