Compensatory Mitigation for Golden Eagles: Reducing Vehicle Collisions

Hatchet Ridge, Pattern Energy

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Eagle Rule requires that any permitted take (killing, wounding, or disturbing) of golden eagles must be offset, such as by reducing eagle mortality from another source. One such source is vehicle collisions – eagles are at risk of being killed by vehicles as they scavenge on roadkill.

AWWI and collaborators evaluated removal of roadkill as a new compensatory mitigation option by developing a model that estimates the number of golden eagles that can be saved through this approach.

The model is available to use as a proposed compensatory mitigation method in Eagle Conservation Plans at wind energy facilities.

Results Summary

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Eagle-Vehicle-Collision-Results-Summary

Full Report

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Lonsdorf_et_al-2018-The_Journal_of_Wildlife_Management