Media release – No Turbine Action Group, 19 September 2023
272 Wedge-tailed Eagles downed
The Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle is the largest bird of prey in Australia, but it’s no match for 100 tonnes of composite metal and carbon fibre spinning at 300 kph.
231 were reported killed and 41 badly injured in just over a decade, with 49 white-bellied sea-eagles adding to the total.
Collisions at wind farms are reported by operators to the Environmental Protection Agency Tasmania. Scores, if not hundreds, of carcasses lie frozen at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, awaiting necropsy. TasNetworks adds its high number of carcass finds to this pile.
Acknowledging the number of eagles which have been killed is essential for understanding the remnant population. Unfortunately, the total of deaths and injuries through collision with energy assets is not publicly available.
With the last population estimate carried out 17 years ago, and with the Threatened Tasmanian Eagle Recovery Plan (2006 -10) abandoned since then, guesstimates of around 1000 total, with maybe 600 breeding-age birds, is about it.
As a member of the Keep Tasmania’s Highlands Unique – No Turbine Action Group (NTAG) Greg Pullen has made a start by tabulating known eagle deaths and injuries during the period 2010 – 2022. The information was sourced from a variety of annual reports, with a peer-reviewed paper published online last week by Australian Field Ornithology.
The complete document can be read by following this link: https://afo.birdlife.org.au/afo/index.php/afo/article/view/2304
More threats to the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle are predicted as 47 new turbines are proposed for St Patricks Plains. Numbers of wedge-tails utilising the area are estimated by human observation, and annualised deaths are extrapolated from these results. This is an outmoded method, replaced internationally with raptors fitted with GPS transmitters sending real-time data informing territory size, utilisation, and nest preference.
Another antiquated regulation for wind farm developers is the one-kilometre circular buffer around nests. Developed nearly 40 years ago for ground-based forestry operations, it is obviously ineffective when the turbines are up to nine times the height of the surrounding bush in the Central Highlands, or nearly three times the height of Tasmania’s giant E. regnans.
It takes little imagination to see that standards are set very low in Tasmania to give wind project developers an easy ride.
Community objections to the St Patricks Plains wind farm can be lodged until 5pm, Monday, September 25 by emailing the Central Highlands Council: [email protected] For assistance with a submission, contact [email protected]
