These pages contain images of bats and links to sites, research and information relating to the impact of IWT and Industrialization on bats and their habitats.

Hoary Bat  (Photo taken near Mica Bay September 24, 2006)	Hoary Bat (Photo taken near Mica Bay September 24, 2006)

Mitigation?  What mitigation, we don't need no stinking mitigation!
To paraphrase Mel Brook's "Blazing Saddles" (1974)

Bird and raptor allowable mortality threshold rates in Ontario have been set equal to the highest ever recorded in North America.  The Industrial Wind Generating Installation at Wolfe Island has consistently approached those thresholds in every reporting period since the plant started operating in May 2009.  Birds killed include: birds listed as "threatened" (Chimney Swift & Bobolinks), raptors, and 25 other species of birds. To date Environment Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources have recommended no mitigation actions other than ongoing monitoring.  Presumably when all the raptors and other birds which migrate along this major migration route have had their numbers sufficiently reduced,  the problem will be solved and no further mitigation will be necessary.

What can we expect the cumulative bird mortality to be once Ostrander Point, Amherst Island, Wolfe Island Shoals & 22 other Industrial Wind Projects to be constructed in the area come online?  The MNR treats each project in isolation and doesn't appear to consider the cumulative effect of so many Industrial Wind Plants being constructed across a major migratory flyway.  They also don't consider the cumulative effect on watersheds, erosion or the impact this Industrial checkerboarding will have on the long term viability of Ontario's biodiversity? 

The climate is variable.  If nothing else has come from 12 years of climate science, this has.  No one disputes that the climate gets warmer and colder over time.  If our climate is indeed warming at present (and there is some legitimate doubt about that), whether caused by humans or nature or a combinaion of both, the accepted theory is that in attempting to adapt to changing conditions our flora and fauna will migrate from southern regions to more northerly regions.  How will the Industrial Checkerboarding of the Lake Superior watershed and our boreal forest, which our Ontario Government wants to carpet with thousands of IWT, help sustain biodiversity and allow our endangered natural heritage adapt to a changing climate?  The more wilderness is fragmented the less carrying capacity it has and the greater the percentage of its flora and fauna that become extirpated if not extinct (1)

But the Ministry of Natural Resources is not interested in such considerations.  The MNR's priorities are evident in the phrasing to be found at the start of EBR postings related to the GEA and REA:

"Ontario wants to make it easier for businesses to apply for and obtain environmental approvals in a way that increases protection of the environment. That's why we've created a new environmental approvals process that will create a more efficient, user-friendly approach that continues to fully protect the environment."

Note that the priority is making it easier for business and more "efficient" and "user friendly".  The environment is last in both sentences.  Furthermore our environment is not currently 'fully' protected.  I'm also unsure how building hundreds of kilometers of 20m wide roads able of carrying 50 to 100 tons of equipment, clear cutting hundreds of acres of carbon sink forest, disrupting wetlands and spawning streams, and pouring hundreds of thousands of tons of cement on which oil-leaking IWT, which catch fire, will be erected and connected to the US export market via thousands of kilometers of new high voltage transmission towers, which will have to be cut through our untouched wilderness, "increases protection of the environment".

The latest Bird and Bat mortality reports for Wolfe Island can be found here and reports for previous years can be found here

Some interesting research done recently in England suggests that birds and bats are killed while trying to feed on migrating insects.  Most bats killed by IWT are killed on warm still nights between late July and early October when migrating insects which typically fly at an altitude of 60 meters, are attracted to the IWT.  Here is the Abstract:

Mortality of bats at wind turbines links to nocturnal insect migration?

Jens Rydell, Lothar Bach, Marie-Jo Dubourg-Savage, Martin Green, Luísa Rodrigues and Anders Hedenström

This note is based on a literature search and a recent review of bat mortality data from wind farms in Europe (published elsewhere). We suggest that mortality of bats at wind turbines may be linked to high-altitude feeding on migrating insects that accumulate at the turbine towers. Modern wind turbines seem to reach high enough into the airspace to interfere with the migratory movements of insects. The hypothesis is consistent with recent observations of bats at wind turbines. It is supported by the observation that mortality of bats at wind turbines is highly seasonal (August–September) and typically peaks during nights with weather conditions known to trigger large-scale migratory movements of insects (and songbirds). We also discuss other current hypotheses concerning the mortality of bats at wind turbines.

The article can be found on Springerlink here

The article can be found here

The Economic Importance of Bats in Agriculture

    Justin G. Boyles^1,*
    Paul M. Cryan²
    Gary F. McCracken³, and
    Thomas H. Kunz⁴

    1  Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.
    2  U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins Science Center, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA.
    3  Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA.
    4  Center for Ecology and Conservation Biology, Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

    *↵Author for correspondence. E-mail: jgboyles{at}zoology.up.ac.za

Science 1 April 2011:
Vol. 332 no. 6025 pp. 41-42
DOI: 10.1126/science.1201366

Abstract

White-nose syndrome (WNS) and the increased development of wind-power facilities are threatening populations of insectivorous bats in North America. Bats are voracious predators of nocturnal insects, including many crop and forest pests. We present here analyses suggesting that loss of bats in North America could lead to agricultural losses estimated at more than $3.7 billion/year. Urgent efforts are needed to educate the public and policy-makers about the ecological and economic importance of insectivorous bats and to provide practical conservation solutions.