Vulnerable grassland birds abandon mating sites near wind turbines

Leks are sites at which male prairie-chickens gather each spring to perform mating displays and attract females. The researchers visited 23 leks during the five-year study to observe how many male birds were present and to record the body mass of trapped males. After wind turbine construction, they found an increased rate of lek abandonment at sites within eight kilometers of the turbines as well as a slight decrease in male body mass. Lek abandonment was also more likely at sites where there were seven or fewer males and at sites located in agricultural fields instead of natural grasslands.

This paper is the latest in a series of studies on the effects of wind energy development on prairie-chickens. "To me, what is most interesting about our results is that we are now able to start putting different pieces of our larger project together to better understand the response of Greater Prairie-Chickens to wind energy development at our field site," says study co-author Virginia Winder. "We have found that both male and female prairie-chickens have negative behavioral responses to wind energy development. The data we collected to monitor this response have also allowed us new insights into the ecology of this species. For example, lek persistence at our study site depended not only on distance to turbine, but also male numbers and habitat."

The findings of this study reinforce the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommendation that no new wind energy development should be done within an eight-kilometer buffer around active lek sites. "It is critical to have rigorous evaluations of direct and indirect effects of wind energy facilities on species such as prairie-chickens," according to grassland wildlife management expert Larkin Powell, who was not involved with the research. "The potential for trade-offs between renewable energy and wildlife populations on the landscape is one of the key questions of our day."