Table of Contents Disclaimer .............................................................................................................................................................. i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................ ii 1. Overview ..................................................................................................................................................... ii 2. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act ................................................................................................ ii 3. Risks to Eagles from Wind Energy Facilities .............................................................................................. ii 4. Eagle Take Permits .................................................................................................................................... iii 5. Voluntary Nature of the ECPG ................................................................................................................... iii 6. Eagle Take Thresholds ............................................................................................................................... iii 7. An Approach for Developing and Evaluating Eagle ACPs......................................................................... iv 8. Mitigation Actions to Reduce Effects on Eagle Populations ..................................................................... v 9. Relationship of Eagle Guidelines (ECPG) to the Wind Energy Guidelines (WEG) .................................... vi Tiers 1 and 2 of the WEG, Stage 1 of the ECPG ........................................................................................ vi Tier 3 of the WEG, Stages 2, 3, and 4 of the ECPG .................................................................................. vii Tier 4 and 5 of the WEG, Stage 5 of the ECPG .......................................................................................... ix 10. Site Categorization Based on Mortality Risk to Eagles .......................................................................... ix Category 1 – High risk to eagles, potential to avoid or mitigate impacts is low ...................................... x Category 2 – High or moderate risk to eagles, opportunity to mitigate impacts ...................................... x Category 3 – Minimal risk to eagles ........................................................................................................... x 11. Addressing Uncertainty ........................................................................................................................... xi 12. Interaction with the Service .................................................................................................................... xi INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE .......................................................................................................................... 4 1. Purpose........................................................................................................................................................ 4 2. Legal Authorities and Relationship to Other Statutes and Guidelines ..................................................... 6 3. Background and Overview of Process ........................................................................................................ 8 a. Risks to Eagles ........................................................................................................................................ 9 b. General Approach to Address Risk ......................................................................................................... 9 ASSESSING RISK AND EFFECTS ....................................................................................................................... 12 1. Considerations When Assessing Eagle Use Risk .................................................................................... 12 a. General Background and Rationale for Assessing Project Effects on Eagles ..................................... 12 b. Additional Considerations for Assessing Project Effects: Migration Corridors and Stopover Sites ... 14 2. Eagle Risk Factors ..................................................................................................................................... 15 3. Overview of Process to Assess Risk......................................................................................................... 16 4. Site Categorization Based on Mortality Risk to Eagles ........................................................................... 25 a. Category 1 – High risk to eagles, potential to avoid or mitigate impacts is low ................................ 25 b. Category 2 – High or moderate risk to eagles, opportunity to mitigate impacts ................................ 25 c. Category 3 – Minimal risk to eagles ..................................................................................................... 26 5. Cumulative Effects Considerations .......................................................................................................... 26 a. Early Planning ........................................................................................................................................ 26 b. Analysis Associated with Permits ........................................................................................................ 27 2 ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................................ 28 EAGLE CONSERVATION PLAN DEVELOPMENT PROCESS ................................................................................ 29 1. Contents of the Eagle Conservation Plan ................................................................................................. 30 a. Stage 1 .................................................................................................................................................. 31 b. Stage 2 .................................................................................................................................................. 31 c. Stage 3 ................................................................................................................................................... 31 d. Stage 4 .................................................................................................................................................. 31 e. Stage 5 – Post-construction Monitoring .............................................................................................. 31 INTERACTION WITH THE SERVICE .................................................................................................................... 32 INFORMATION COLLECTION.............................................................................................................................. 33 GLOSSARY .......................................................................................................................................................... 34 LITERATURE CITED ............................................................................................................................................. 40 APPENDIX A: ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT ......................................................................................................... 44 1. Adaptive Management as a Tool ............................................................................................................. 45 2. Applying Adaptive Management to Eagle Take Permitting .................................................................... 46 a. Adaptive Management of Wind Project Operations ............................................................................ 46 b. Adaptive Management of Wind Project Siting and Design Recommendations .................................. 47 c. Adaptive Management of Compensatory Mitigation ........................................................................... 47 d. Adaptive Management of Population-Level Take Thresholds ............................................................. 47 Literature Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 48 APPENDIX B: STAGE 1 – SITE ASSESSMENT ................................................................................................... 50 Literature Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 52 APPENDIX C: STAGE 2 – SITE-SPECIFIC SURVEYS AND ASSESSMENT ......................................................... 53 1. Surveys of Eagle Use ................................................................................................................................ 53 a. Point Count Surveys .............................................................................................................................. 53 b. Migration Counts and Concentration Surveys ...................................................................................... 60 c. Utilization Distribution (UD) Assessment ............................................................................................. 62 d. Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 63 2. Survey of the Project-area Nesting Population: Number and Locations of Occupied Nests of Eagles .. 64 Literature Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 66 APPENDIX D: STAGE 3 – PREDICTING EAGLE FATALITIES............................................................................... 68 1. Exposure .................................................................................................................................................... 69 2. Collision Probability .................................................................................................................................. 71 3. Expansion .................................................................................................................................................. 72 3 4. Fatalities.................................................................................................................................................... 72 5. Putting it all together: an example ........................................................................................................... 72 a. Patuxent Power Company Example ...................................................................................................... 73 b. Exposure ................................................................................................................................................ 74 b. Collision Probability ............................................................................................................................... 75 c. Expansion ............................................................................................................................................... 75 d. Fatalities ................................................................................................................................................ 75 6. Additional Considerations ........................................................................................................................ 76 a. Small-scale projects .............................................................................................................................. 76 Literature Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 77 APPENDIX E: STAGE 4 – AVOIDANCE AND MINIMIZATION OF RISK USING ACPS AND OTHER CONSERVATION MEASURES, AND COMPENSATORY MITIGATION............................................................... 78 Literature Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 79 APPENDIX F: ASSESSING PROJECT-LEVEL TAKE AND CUMULATIVE EFFECTS ANALYSES .......................... 80 Literature Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 85 APPENDIX G: EXAMPLES USING RESOURCE EQUIVALENCY ANALYSIS TO ESTIMATE THE COMPENSATORY MITIGATION FOR THE TAKE OF GOLDEN AND BALD EAGLES FROM WIND ENERGY DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................................................................... 86 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 86 2. REA Inputs ................................................................................................................................................. 86 3. REA Example – WindCoA ......................................................................................................................... 88 a. REA Language and Methods ................................................................................................................. 89 b. REA Results for WindCoA ..................................................................................................................... 91 c. Summary of Bald Eagle REA Results .................................................................................................... 92 d. Discussion on Using REA ...................................................................................................................... 93 e. Additional Compensatory Mitigation Example ..................................................................................... 93 f. Take from Disturbance ........................................................................................................................... 93 Literature Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 94 APPENDIX H: STAGE 5 – CALIBRATING AND UPDATING OF THE FATALITY PREDICTION AND CONTINUED RISK-ASSESSMENT ........................................................................................................................................... 96 1. Fatality Monitoring ................................................................................................................................... 96 2. Disturbance Monitoring ............................................................................................................................ 98 3. Comparison of Post-Construction Eagle Use with Pre-Construction Use................................................ 99 Literature Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 99
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