Project period: 7 13 23-7 12 25PROJECT title: risk from turbines to bald and golden eagles crossing the great lakesthis project will conduct research to improve understanding of how eagle flight…

Project period: 7 13 23-7 12 25PROJECT title: risk from turbines to bald and golden eagles crossing the great lakesthis project will conduct research to improve understanding of how eagle flight behavior may expose them to risk from offshore and near-shore wind turbines in the great lakes. Its findings will aid the united states fish wildlife service (USFWS) in providing technical assistance to wind energy developers. Development of wind energy can have negative consequences for wildlife, especially via fatalities caused by collision with turbine blades. A hotspot for wind energy development is the offshore and near-shore environment, including the great lakes. However, many species of migratory birds, including eagles protected under the bald and golden eagle protection act, cross the great lakes. The fish wildlife service is responsible for managing populations of migratory birds and thus has a role in assessing the effect of wind energy development on migratory birds and providing technical assistance to wind energy developers. As such, the fish wildlife service has a strong interest in understanding how flight behavior of eagles may expose them to risk from collision with wind energy facilities built in the great lakes. Conservation science global will work with the united states geological survey to analyze millions of global positioning system (GPS) data points collected from tracking units carried by at least 226 bald and 108 golden eagles as they have flown, and continue to fly, throughout the great lakes region. We will identify and describe these birds water crossings for each of the five great lakes. Analysis will focus on identifying movement pathways over and adjacent to the great lakes and flight behavior along those movement pathways. Information from this study can thus identify areas where placement of wind turbines may represent especially low or high risk to eagles and, also, how flight behavior of eagles over water could expose them to risk. This information can help inform siting of offshore wind energy facilities in the great lakes and will help the fish wildlife service evaluate risk of proposed developments. In addition to informal reporting throughout the project, we will provide a final formal report and publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal. Finally, this project will result in a publicly available mapping product that the fish wildlife service and other entities can use to plan development.