Potential Impacts to Whooping Cranes by R-Project Powerline

Potential impacts to Whooping Crane due to the r-project have not been adequately considered by the Nebraska Public Power District, according to a recent report. Much of the report is an evaluation of a previous report regarding the endangered cranes prepared by K. Gil and E. Weir.

Once these reports became available, there have been numerous requests by people concerned with construction of the r-project, a Nebraska state legislator and others that the utility provide an adequate assessment before the transmission line could be constructed.

Primary in the report was a finding that the Fish and Wildlife Service environmental review did not consider radio telemetry records of Whooping Crane occurrence collected during 2010-2014. Including these records provide a more “comprehensive and accurate representation of whooping crane occurrences in the R-Project area,” according to Craig A. Davis, the author of the report.

Other indicated items of concern included:

“NPPD did not validate” the collision risk assessment in their crane risk model.

NPPD’s mathematical equations “oversimplifies the potential risk that the r-project poses to migrating whooping cranes.”

NPPD underestimated “the risk of whooping crane collision with high voltage transmission lines” by utilizing data for powerlines in areas where cranes would not occur.

NPPD underestimated the extent of potential crane habitat that would potentially be impacted by the transmission line.

NPPD did not consider wetlands of less than 0.25 acres as potential stopover habitat.

Crane avoidance protocol during construction were not clearly defined.

“NPPD used a rather simplistic collision model to estimate the potential risk of powerlines to whooping cranes.” This model could not be validated, Davis indicated in his subsequent, detailed discussion.

Other items discussed in the report include projected population growth, an ecosystem risk model, and a review of whooping crane telemetry occurrence data.

“It is clear after reviewing NPPD’s, Gil and Weir’s, and the USFWS’s approaches that there is considerable uncertainty in how whooping cranes will be impacted by the R-Project,” Davis said. He also suggested that occurrence records “should be investigated further to determine the types of habitat whooping cranes are using within the R-Project area...”

Craig A. Davis. 2018. Review of Whooping Crane Risk Assessment Documents for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Issuance of an Incidental Take Permit and Implementation of a Habitat Conservation Plan for the R-Project Transmission Line. Lewis Berger U.S., Inc. Morristown, NJ. 23 pp.

Gil, K. and E. Weir. 2017. Scientific Analysis and Comments Regarding the R-Project Draft Habitat Conservation Plan and Potential Impacts to Endangered Whooping Crane: Analysis of Whooping Crane Powerline Collision Risk. Ecosystem Advisors, LP, College Station, TX. 39 pp.