Office Manager/Program Registrar
Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary
Dear Ms Ryder,
I have little doubt you will find the following to be of great interest.
Pictures showing that raptors are attracted to wind turbines, thus putting their lives at risk:
Study showing that
bats are attracted to wind turbines from as far as 14 km away (see below).
A new, short paper mentioning all this and suggesting that
swifts and swallows could also be attracted to windfarms.
This projects a new light on wind turbines, which have turned to become
ecological traps instead of planet savers. You may thus forget about "siting wind turbines carefully": it's useless, as many bird and bat species are
attracted to them from miles away, often to their death. Even small turbines seem to attract them.
This is a whole new ball game, and by placing a wind turbine in your bird sanctuary, however "small" the machine, you will be committing a crime against birds, bats, and biodiversity.
Your wind turbine would please the wind industry, which I predict would use it as "proof" that wind turbines pose no danger to bird populations - since the "prestigious" Audubon Society approves of a wind turbine in a wildlife sanctuary.
As you have been warned of the dangers to wildlife, your going ahead with this project would evidence a collusion on your part with the wind industry, which could only further damage your reputation.
Yours, dismayed
Mark Duchamp
Chairman, World Council for Nature
www.wcfn.org
