What Species: Golden Eagle (eastern USA population; Aquila chrysaetos canadensis)

Where: The Appalachian Mountains of western and central Pennsylvania and surrounding states, including West Virginia, Kentucky, New York, Virginia, Maryland and other states.

Who: Todd Katzner (National Aviary), Robert Mulvihill and Mike Lanzone (Powdermill Avian Research Center of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History), Trish Miller (Powdermill Nature Reserve of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History & The Pennsylvania State University), Dave Brandes (Lafayette College), Dan Ombalski (State College Bird Club), and Charles Maisonneuve (Ministère des Ressources Naturelles et de la Faune, Quebec, Canada).

When: 2005 - present

Why (threats): People in the Appalachian region of western and central Pennsylvania and surrounding states have a unique and special responsibility for the conservation of the eastern North American population of golden eagles. This biologically distinct population is of conservation concern and preliminary data suggest that most individuals in the population migrate through one or more narrow (30-60 mile) bottlenecks along the mid-Appalachian Mountains.

The ridges in these bottlenecks are, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, also the sites within the region with the highest potential for development of wind power.

Wind power development is important to U.S. and local economies and also is the world's fastest growing energy technology. Thus, development of wind power in the Appalachians should be conducted in a manner that will best meet the dual goals of promoting renewable energy generation and, at the same time, protecting this special population of raptors.

The goal of this research is to collect data and provide information that we believe is essential for developers and land managers so that they can take steps to reduce threats to eagles that are posed by turbines.

Scientific or Conservation Problem this Project Addresses:

At present there is little science to guide the development of wind power on Appalachian ridges. Our aim in developing this research is to produce the scientific data necessary to provide managers and elected officials at every level a rational basis for turbine siting and operation criteria to reduce risk to migrating raptors.

Current Goals: The goal of this research project is to collect information on where and how the unique eastern population of golden eagles migrates through the Appalachian Mountains, and to use these data to create regional maps showing the relative risk to eagles of development of wind power in different areas. We expect that these maps will provide a crucial tool for managers and elected officials to guide safer development of wind power throughout the region.

Next Steps: At present we are working with several existing hawk migration counts to collect additional data on flight dynamics and eagle behavior during migration. We have also trapped and telemetered several eastern golden eagles (the exact number changes as we trap more birds and other tracking units become inoperative; track these eagles) and, assuming the birds and funders continue to cooperate, we hope to telemeter more eagles in the near future. We began to track the birds we trapped in 2006 and 2007, and are in initial stages of analyses of these data.

Finally, our first-stage modeling has begun by focusing on broad-scale migration patterns that will indicate the routes and rationales for eagle movement. Second-stage models that provide greater detail on the specifics of how eagles use topography and weather will follow as we develop more data and funding.

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