NEXT STEPS TO BE TAKEN
During this meeting, the participants reviewed much relevant background information from U.S. and European studies, identified and discussed many potentially relevant research areas, and identified many of the key elements of the research that should be done in those areas. They also outlined in some detail what should be done during pre-construction surveys of birds, including how those surveys can be done in a manner that will provide a good baseline for comparisons if the proposed wind plant is ultimately built. The Adaptive Resource Management approach (ARM) was suggested as an effective way to address important scientific questions through cooperative efforts among scientists, wind power developers, and regulators. Some important aspects of research design were discussed, including the desirability of both temporal and spatial controls (BACI design).
The present Proceedings provide a record of the background information, discussions and suggestions arising from the meeting. These Proceedings have been reviewed by the meeting organizers, Technical Presenters and Technical Participants to ensure that, insofar as possible, they provide a full and balanced account of the information and discussions.
It was proposed at the meeting that more specific recommendations for the conduct of baseline studies should be formulated, starting from the concepts discussed at this meeting and the work being done under contract to EPRI by S.A. Gauthreaux. A process for this effort is to be worked out, coordinated by Resolve Inc. This should include the identification of a process to develop consensus on variables to be measured, their definitions, methods for making the necessary field measurements, and the degree of standardization desirable.
The future of the present technical Workgroup and of its recommendations was also discussed, emphasizing its relationship to the National Wind Coordinating Committee's soon-to-be formed Avian Workgroup. That Workgroup is expected to include representatives of a wide variety of stakeholders (see Appendix 2A, p.
*), and will have a policy as well as a technical role. A few of the participants in the present meeting are expected to be members of the Avian Workgroup. It is suggested that some other participants in the present meeting who are interested in and qualified for continuing involvement in this area could become a technical advisory group to the Avian Workgroup. In this manner, the activities of present group and of the NWCC Avian Workgroup could be merged onto a single track. Finalization of such an approach must await formal creation of the Avian Workgroup. However, in anticipation that some such mechanism will be created, it was agreed that any of the present meeting participants not interested in providing technical assistance on an as-needed basis would advise the meeting Facilitator.Other topics that might be taken up by such a technical group for further consideration and consensus building are the following:
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Mitigation/enhancement opportunities, |
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Population level effects, modeling, etc., |
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Experimental design approaches, and |
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Peer review of proposals and results |
