A controversial wind-energy project threatening endangered California
condors and golden eagles in California is the target of a federal
lawsuit filed today by the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of
Wildlife and the Sierra Club against the U.S. Department of the
Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Before turning to the court, the conservation groups met several
times with the developer, asking that the some 100-turbine North Sky
River wind project be redesigned to avoid known environmentally
sensitive areas in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains and to include
measures to reduce harm to at-risk bird species. However, the project is
proceeding without these necessary changes.
Sprawling across more than 12,700 acres, the project’s alarming
potential for impacts to rare and endangered species prompted warnings
from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of
Fish and Game in letters to Kern County supervisors, who approved
zoning changes to accommodate the project. The North Sky River project
is sited next to another wind farm—Pine Tree—that has a history of bird
kills, including at least eight federally protected golden eagles in
just over two years. The environmental review of the North Sky River
project documented more than 50 golden eagle sightings and 14 nests
within just 10 miles of the proposed site.
