Blowing in the Wind Wildlife activists challenge the wind energy industry. By Kaukab Jhumra Smith Remember Winged Migration? The critically acclaimed film presented a glorious panorama of birds migrating against the changing seasons. Bet you never thought those regal birds could fly into windmills along the way. Some wildlife activists blame wind energy farms in the U.S. for the deaths of thousands of migratory birds a year. The issue is controversial because it pits renewable wind energy, an increasingly popular environmental cause, against another charged cause: wildlife preservation. The wind energy movement has been gathering support in recent years. Led by student initiatives, universities around the country are working to include wind power among their energy purchases. The University of California system, for example, has promised to install its own sources for renewable energy across its 10 campuses, buy 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources and reduce energy use to 10 percent below 2000 levels. The UO is not far behind. Students from the Campus Clean Energy Project are working with the administration to create a new policy that allows at least 20 percent of the university's energy needs to come from wind power. "Clean energy has become a very hot issue on college campuses," Anne Blumenthal, a CCEP member, said in a group press release for an April 1 rally. The UO rally was one of a hundred held at schools nationwide in support of wind power. "This movement will be able to effect serious change both on and off college campuses. This is just the beginning." But Stan Moore, a raptor biologist, presented a much grimmer picture of clean energy when he spoke on "Wind Farms and Threats to Migratory Birds" at UO's Public Interest Environmental Law Conference this year. At his presentation during last month's panel, Moore flashed photos of eagles perched on the rotors of wind turbines at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in Northern California. "When these turbines are turning, they kill eagles, there's no doubt about it," Moore said, adding they also kill hawks, songbirds, barn owls, mockingbirds and other species. Gusts of wind can lift a low-flying bird right into the blades above, he said. "We're not against wind energy," Moore said, but added that the industry has helped perpetuate false public perceptions about green energy. There's "something missing" when biological consultants consistently issue reports downplaying the negative effects of wind energy. Moore wants to hold wind farms accountable for breaking the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, a federal piece of legislation that bars the capturing, hunting or killing of migratory birds, as well as numerous other wildlife protection laws. Although he readily admits that bird deaths at wind farms often don't affect total bird populations, he doesn't think only fatalities influencing population numbers should be prosecuted. "Every bird's life is significant," he says. Much of the activist furor over bird deaths began with wind farms located in Altamont Pass in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lying along a major raptor migration corridor, Altamont Pass has the highest concentration of golden eagles in the world and high densities of burrowing owls. Altamont Pass also kills more raptors than any other wind facility in the world, said Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity, another PIELC panelist. A small percentage of Altamont turbines are responsible for the majority of the deaths. Altamont turbines kill an estimated 1,700 to 4,700 birds each year. Exact numbers are unknown because some bird corpses may have gone unnoticed, been scavenged by other animals, and been chopped into too many bits to be counted accurately. The American Wind Energy Association holds that the mortality rates at Altamont Pass are unique. The Center for Biological Diversity has just filed a lawsuit against wind farms in Altamont Pass, timed to coincide with upcoming or ongoing permit renewals. Alleging that "massive tax credits" and government cash grants received by the wind industry are subsidizing bird deaths, the lawsuit also aims to play up what another panelist, Jay Tuchton of the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Denver, called the "embarrassment factor" — publicity that would spur the industry to take action for fear of harming its public image. With many wind energy farms still to be installed in the country, activists such as Moore hope that they can work with the wind industry to avoid problems rather than just solving them. While the Altamont problem is horrible, it's also 20 years old, points out Charles Lessmann, one of the attendees at the PIELC panel. Lessmann, a graduate student in Environmental Systems at Humboldt State University, is researching his master's thesis on wind energy and bird interactions in Humboldt County. Lessmann references the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service guidelines that recognize some birds may be killed at structures like wind turbines even if "all reasonable measures" have been taken to avoid such deaths. He feels that wind industry has made "good faith efforts" to follow environmental laws through improved technology and ecological mitigation and should not be penalized for bird deaths. Altamont Pass is not a good representation of general wind industry practice because turbine technology has changed greatly since Altamont Pass was set up in 1982, Lessmann says. New wind farms need fewer turbines to generate as much or more energy as Altamont. Altamont's turbines are weak, he explains, while new turbines are bigger, stronger, spin more slowly and efficiently and so are more visible. New installations also put more space between turbines to avoid creating a solid wall of turbine blades like that at Altamont, Lessmann points out. And new turbines also have smooth towers, rather than latticed towers, to prevent birds from perching on them. To be fair, consultants to the wind energy industry often echo recommendations for better practices put forth by activists like Moore, who wants turbines not to be sited on areas with endangered species or located in known bird migration pathways. Finding the right location for wind turbines is "very, very important," said Paul Kerlinger, a consultant to the wind energy industry who presented lessons learned from avian mortality at a USFW workshop. He recommended keeping turbines off steep slopes where birds are likely to soar, and avoid perch opportunities offered by lattice-type structures. "Bird strikes at windmills are an emotionally charged issue for a lot of people," says Lessmann. That may explain why soon after the PIELC panel, moderator Andrew Orahoske, a UO law student, pulled Lessmann aside to reprimand him for suggesting during the course of a question that the speakers hadn't presented all sides of the debate. "I feel (the panelists) may have under-represented the efforts and strides that have been made to shrink the ecological footprint of wind farms, by not mentioning a good case with the bad," Lessmann later said. "We cannot completely illustrate the whole issue with just one case (Altamont Pass)." Orahoske, who worked as a biologist before entering law school, defends his actions. "Many people do not realize that wind energy has any real negative impacts on the environment," he says. While he recognizes many industry people have cooperated on this issue, Orahoske wants the industry to follow the same level of federal approval and environmental analysis required of all other energy development under federal law. "Despite the hype, the wind industry is fragile," says Lessmann. "It's already endured a couple cycles of boom-and-bust because of tax rebate 'help,' but investment was only there while rebates were available." For more information on UO's Campus Clean Energy Project, call 579-1379. To learn more about the EWEB Windpower Program, call 338-9463.       WAY OF THE WORM If you're looking to unearth the secrets to a healthy, flourishing garden, consider learning more about earthworms. At 1 pm Saturday, May 1, Amy Stewart, author of The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, and Worm Digest Managing Editor S. Zorba Frankel will be co-presenters of worm education at Down to Earth Farm & Gardens, 532 Olive St. The event is being done in conjunction with the UO Bookstore. Here is just a little information and review to get you geared up for an interesting look at the garden …   Worm Composting Turns Garbage into Gold By S. Zorba Frankel Earth Day is the perfect opportunity to begin a new, earth-friendly and fun activity. Worm composting is easy, keeps food waste out of our landfill, and produces an excellent natural plant fertilizer. It can be done in a small container in a house or apartment, in the garage, or outside. With a little care and maintenance, the worm bin will smell only of damp earth. So, what is a worm bin? Just a shallow container, usually wood and plastic. Small air holes drilled (1/8" is fine) low and high on the bin insure that air reaches all the material inside. Additional holes on the bottom help prevent waterlogging. Bin size depends on how much food waste you produce. Save your food waste for a week, then measure its weight in pounds; you'll want your bin to have that same number of square feet of surface area. One very popular bin size is 2' x 3' by 20" high, made from one sheet of exterior grade plywood (see our plans at www.wormdigest.org/buildyourbin.html). This bin can accept six pounds of food waste weekly, and many families of three or four people find this size adequate for their needs. You can also build your custom worm condo using scrap (untreated) wood. You can keep a smaller worm bin under the sink, where it's easy to access while preparing food. A plastic storage tote works well, (and you'll want to have a catch tray underneath to receive any excess liquid.) Be generous in drilling air holes in your plastic bin, as they tend to stay wetter inside. (Designs for this bin are also at our website.) Redworms' needs are simple. They will do fine at temperatures between 35-85°F, and do their best work at 60-80°. They require a very moist and dark environment. You may already have seen redworms in an outdoor compost pile, under decomposing leaves, or where you've heavily mulched your soil with organic matter. Don't confuse redworms with soil-dwellers. In nature, redworms live above the ground, where they clean up stuff that lands on the surface.   Getting Started First, fill your bin with a high-carbon bedding material like brown leaves, shredded newspaper or cardboard (even office paper), chopped straw or hay. Dampen it well — when you squeeze it, a few drops should come out — that's roughly a 75 percent moisture content. Then add your worms, which you can get from a worm farm (a web search will turn up many hundreds of companies) or see our current list of Oregon and Washington worm sellers at www.wormdigest.org/localworms.html Be sure you're getting redworms, the species called Eisenia fetida. Starting a smaller bin with one pound (1000-1200 redworms) and a larger bin with two pounds is about right. They'll multiply if the feeding rate and space allows. Feed your worms slowly at first, and increase the rate after a few weeks. It's best to chop food waste small with a knife. Don't feed meat, dairy or very fatty foods, and go easy on the citrus peels. Bury all food 4 to 6 inches down in the bedding to reduce fruit fly problems. There are a few common problems that many worm composting bins have, but you can learn to anticipate these and avoid them. Don't let the bin get too wet, which can cut off air circulation. As bedding is eaten you'll want to add more, to keep carbon and nitrogen in balance. In general, keep the bin out of the sun (cooked worms are a really sad situation). Don't worry about seeing all kinds of tiny busy organisms in the bin, however. It's a complete decomposer ecosystem in there (see www.wormdigest.org/crittergallery.html).You can harvest your black gold after three or four months. One simple way to harvest is to scoop out all the finished material in the bottom 4 to 6 inches of the bin. Use it as you would any fertilizer. By the way, kids love worms. Your worm bin can be the source of a great number of lessons in biology, general science and some pretty exciting mathematics ("If two of our worms produce 15 cocoons a week, and hatch in XX weeks, with 2 to 5 baby worms per cocoon, how many worms will we have in YY weeks?"). S. Zorba Frankel is managing editor of Worm Digest, headquartered here in Eugene. For more information, visit   A Worm's World For the earthworm, every day is Earth Day. By Bobbie Willis THE EARTH MOVED BY AMY STEWART. ALGONQUIN BOOKS, CHAPEL HILL. 2004. HARDCOVER, $23.95. Author Amy Stewart grew up in Arlington, Tex., worlds away from any inspiration of green-thumbed gardeners or lush gardens. It was, she says, only when she moved as an adult to Santa Cruz, Calif., that she discovered gardening for herself. "This is one of the best climates in the country — well, next to Eugene — where everything grows," she says. "Having a little land and a little time made all the difference. This is what got me into gardening." Stewart translated this discovery into her first book, From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Gardener (Algonquin Books, 2001). And from within that first garden experience comes her latest book, The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms, where she explores the underground reaches of the simple earthworm. Stewart says, "The more I gardened, the more I started to pay attention to the soil, as much as if not more than to the plants. It became really clear that earthworms were a sign of soil fertility." Her fascination with earthworms grew when she moved from Santa Cruz to Eureka, where she discovered an entirely different kind of earthworm in the soil. In The Earth Moved Stewart writes, "The first inhabitant of the soil to capture my attention was an earthworm. I am a gardener, after all; I can't miss the fact that gardeners and earthworms work in tandem, tilling the soil, feeding the plants. … I thought they might have a few surprises in store for me, so I began investigating their habits. I soon realized that they held the key to most of what was happening below ground." Amy Stewart Stewart begins her investigation with the late-in-life, though characteristically meticulous, study of worms by scientist Charles Darwin. From this jumping off point, she explores the worms in her own backyard compost bin, the worms eating Minnesota (non-indigenous European worms are eating layers and layers of duff in Minnesota forests, making it almost impossible for undergrowth to take root), and even the legendary giant worms — three feet and longer — of Oregon, Washington and Australia. She explains that worms are natural tillers of soil, that they are "ruminators; they sift through whatever surrounds them, they turn it over, explore it, move through it." She describes how worms turn plant matter into rich soil by writing, "Functionally, worms really do one thing: they digest." The digested plant matter, called castings, serves as wonderful stuff for the garden. Stewart has a great voice for this kind of natural history writing. It is factual and well informed, but in a backyard scientist kind of way. We as readers follow along easily, partly out of curiosity, partly out of something like neighborliness, as Stewart discovers and shares the microcosm of earthworms and bacteria and fungi in their underground community. This kind of writing, Stewart says, fits into a bigger sense of environmentalism in that it makes one really look at and think about one's surroundings. "When you realize that soil is full of living creatures, billions of living creatures," she says, "when you think about your soil as an ecosystem, you start to think twice about what you put into it." In the end, Stewart helps us to see a thing up close, a thing that all along has been right under our nose, or rather right under our toes. She says the most surprising thing she discovered, and adopted as the book's subtitle, was "thinking of earthworms in terms of their accomplishments." In this book, Stewart discovers not only the worm and its subterranean world, but also a deep respect to match her fascination for how these simple creatures connect to our own sustenance and well being.
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