Birds, For the.
I often rant that who needs fiction, when fact tales are so... seemingly fictional.
Another one of my favorite themes is, one person, or even a group of people, has or have a pretty hard time making significant change happen.
Witness the attached story of birds, and towers.
You can read the whole tale, but capsule, researchers found lots of dead songbirds at the bases of towers - you know, communications towers, like cell phone towers.
They discovered that (are you ready for this) towers using intermittent (meaning, blinking) lights reduced the kill rate by 70%.
Of course the lights are required for human navigation safety.
And the part of the story that I wish to emphasize is that this research was done in Michigan, and began in 2003.
"Work could begin," quoting the article, in 2017, to "reach out to tower owners and operators..." to, well, to start flashing.
I'm stunned it takes so long.
The current annual kill rate of migratory birds by towers is about 7 million.
DETROIT FREE PRESS
More than a decade ago, a hundred researchers fanned out across Michigan to count the number of injured and dead songbirds at the base of 24
communications towers during the peak of the birds’ spring and fall migrations.
And they concluded that the towers with steady, burning lights were more deadly to the birds than towers with flashing lights — and that by simply
turning off the steady lights they could reduce deadly bird-tower collisions by 70 percent. An estimated 7 million birds are killed annually in tower
collisions in the U.S. — and most are songbirds that migrate at night.
It took years, and the coordination of three federal agencies, to respond to the research coordinated by the East Lansing field office of the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service. But now, the Federal Aviation Administration has changed its lighting standards for new communication towers, while the Fish
and Wildlife Service recently began working to persuade owners and operators of existing towers across Michigan to turn off the burning lights or
switch to flashing lights.
The lights are meant to protect aircraft of all kinds from striking these towers.
There are thousands of towers across the country, used by broadcasters and communications and telecommunications providers. Only newly built
towers are affected, and replacing or turning off the burning lights is voluntary for existing tower owners. Owners of towers that have both steady and
sufficient
See BIRDS, Page 6A
The Kirtland’s warbler is a rare bird that nests only in certain areas of northern Michigan.
U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
Another one of my favorite themes is, one person, or even a group of people, has or have a pretty hard time making significant change happen.
Witness the attached story of birds, and towers.
You can read the whole tale, but capsule, researchers found lots of dead songbirds at the bases of towers - you know, communications towers, like cell phone towers.
They discovered that (are you ready for this) towers using intermittent (meaning, blinking) lights reduced the kill rate by 70%.
Of course the lights are required for human navigation safety.
And the part of the story that I wish to emphasize is that this research was done in Michigan, and began in 2003.
"Work could begin," quoting the article, in 2017, to "reach out to tower owners and operators..." to, well, to start flashing.
I'm stunned it takes so long.
The current annual kill rate of migratory birds by towers is about 7 million.
Michigan research leads to reduction in songbird deathsBirds
JENNIFER DIXONDETROIT FREE PRESS
More than a decade ago, a hundred researchers fanned out across Michigan to count the number of injured and dead songbirds at the base of 24
communications towers during the peak of the birds’ spring and fall migrations.
And they concluded that the towers with steady, burning lights were more deadly to the birds than towers with flashing lights — and that by simply
turning off the steady lights they could reduce deadly bird-tower collisions by 70 percent. An estimated 7 million birds are killed annually in tower
collisions in the U.S. — and most are songbirds that migrate at night.
It took years, and the coordination of three federal agencies, to respond to the research coordinated by the East Lansing field office of the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service. But now, the Federal Aviation Administration has changed its lighting standards for new communication towers, while the Fish
and Wildlife Service recently began working to persuade owners and operators of existing towers across Michigan to turn off the burning lights or
switch to flashing lights.
The lights are meant to protect aircraft of all kinds from striking these towers.
There are thousands of towers across the country, used by broadcasters and communications and telecommunications providers. Only newly built
towers are affected, and replacing or turning off the burning lights is voluntary for existing tower owners. Owners of towers that have both steady and
sufficient
See BIRDS, Page 6A
The Kirtland’s warbler is a rare bird that nests only in certain areas of northern Michigan.
U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE
Continued from Page 3A
flashing lights can simply extinguish the steady lights. Experts say that could save owners money on maintenance and power costs.
Audubon Great Lakes, the Chicagobased office of the National Audubon Society that manages conservation work throughout the region to protect and
improve habitat critical for birds during migration and nesting cycles, said it’s also willing to use its chapter network across the Great Lakes to reach
out to tower owners and operators about switching or turning off lights. Work could begin in 2017.
“We’re really proud of the work of the office, done in collaboration with the State of Michigan and the Federal Communications Commission. We’re
really pleased we had an opportunity to do something that has nationwide implications for migratory birds,” said Jack Dingledine, deputy field
supervisor at the wildlife service’s East Lansing field office.
It all started in 1998, when the Fish and Wildlife Service learned Michigan had plans to build a telecommunications network of 179 towers.
“We had some concerns about the potential impact of those towers on migratory birds, including the endangered Kirtland’s warbler,” which nests
almost exclusively in northern Michigan, Dingledine said. The agency approached the state, asking for access to the base of the towers so that
researchers could measure the number of dead birds as they migrated between Michigan and the southern U.S., Central America and South America in
the fall and spring.
The state also provided more than $100,000 in funding for the research.
Led by Joelle Gehring, who was working on a post-doctorate at Central Michigan University at the time, researchers did their pilot work at six towers
in fall 2003.
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