2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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9/25/2018 | 10:50 AM - 11:05 AM | Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat Selection, Survival, and Wind Energy Infrastructure | Eccles Conference Center Auditorium

Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat Selection, Survival, and Wind Energy Infrastructure

Increasing concern for environmental sustainability, the demand for domestic energy, and an impetus on reducing dependence on fossil fuels have led to substantial investment in renewable energies including wind energy over the last couple of decades. Increases in wind energy development are especially noticeable in prairie habitats with high wind capacity. This has raised concerns over impacts to greater sage-grouse. We monitored 346 female greater sage-grouse via telemetry from 2009 to 2014 within a control area and an area influenced by a wind energy development to estimate the potential impacts of wind energy infrastructure to greater sage-grouse habitat selection and demography. This study represents the only situation, in the U.S., where the habitat selection and demography responses of sage-grouse to wind energy development infrastructure has been investigated. We did not detect a negative impact of the wind energy facility on nest site selection or nest survival during the study period. Greater sage-grouse rearing broods and selecting summer habitats generally avoided suitable habitats near the wind energy development; however, brood and female survival was not negatively influenced by the facility. The demography and spatial responses of greater sage-grouse in this study was similar to greater prairie-chicken responses to wind energy development. Future wind energy developments should consider the potential impacts of wind energy development on sage-grouse habitat selection patterns and survival parameters. We recommend facilities similar in size that occupy similar habitats as our study be placed 1.20 km from any occupied sage-grouse nesting, brood-rearing, or summer habitats.

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Presenters/Authors

Chad LeBeau (), Western EcoSystems Technology, Inc., cwlebeau@west-inc.com;