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Last Words
Communication Towers
By American Bird Concervancy
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) estimates at least five million birds and as many as 50 million birds are killed annually in collisions with communications towers in the U.S. There are more than 85,000 towers providing coverage for cellular telephone, television and radio, paging, messaging, wireless data and other industries. More than 60,000 of these towers are required by the Federal Communications Commission to be lit, either because they are over 199 ft. tall, are in the immediate vicinity of an airport, or are situated along major highway travel routes. About 7,000 new towers are currently being built each year but this rate is expected to increase with developing cellular telephone and digital television networks. Birds die when they collide with towers, their guy wires and related structures, and the ground. These kills have been documented for over 50 years but there has been insufficient investigation of the extent of tower kills and which species have been affected. American Bird Conservancy has compiled a report analyzing data on both the numbers and species of birds killed at selected towers. This report reveals that 230 species of birds have been documented as being killed at towers, over one quarter of all avian species found in the US. Most birds killed are neotropical migratory songbirds which migrate at night when their navigation systems seem to be confused by the tower lights, particularly in bad weather. This report further documents that 52 of these 230 species killed at towers are on either the USFWS’s most recent Nongame Birds of Management Concern List or the Partners in Flight (PIF) Watch List. This means that 52 species that are in decline and in need of special management attention are killed at towers, including Black Rail, Bell's Vireo, Golden-winged Warbler, Swainson's Warbler, Henslow's Sparrow, Bachman's Sparrow, and McCown's Longspur. This document clearly demonstrates that towers kill many migratory birds, and are another threat to healthy populations of songbirds. ABC's work illustrates the need for further research to determine the exact cause of bird deaths at towers, and how lighting systems and other aspects of tower construction and operation may be modified to avoid such mortality.
ABC is a central participant in the Communication Tower Working Group (CTWG), which is chaired by USFWS and consists of representatives from government agencies, telecommunication, broadcasting and tower industries, scientists and conservation agencies. The CTWG is attempting, to foster research, to ascertain mitigation measures that can be applied to towers to avoid such large-scale avian mortality. ABC also continues to prod federal agencies, such as FAA and FCC, to require bird-safe lighting and tower construction for new and existing towers - see the letter to the FAA. So far the FCC has resisted efforts to assume responsibility for the killing of birds at communication towers that it licenses. The former director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service urged the FCC to produce an Environmental Impact Statement on tower kills and ascertain mitigation measures, but in March 2000, the FCC refused. The FWS has issued voluntary guidelines for the construction of towers to help protect migratory birds.
Read the full article at American Bird Concervancy
Links:
Towerkill.com
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Press Release
DOI Statement
American Bird Concervancy Report PDF
Friends of The Earth Report PDF
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Report PDF
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