Golden Eagle Surveys (Energy)

This project would fund golden eagle nesting surveys in Montana. The Montana ES Field Office is a member of the Golden Eagle Workgroup which determines priority areas for nest surveys. As wind energy development increases throughout Montana, the potential for projects to be delayed or impacted from insufficient or inaccurate data grows. The Golden Eagle Workgroup emphasizes and targets the data collection to high quality habitat which overlaps potential high wind resource areas. The data capture and modeling results are used as a surrogate for initial survey area identification, streamlining the process and lessening the regulatory burden. The grant further enables the requisite helicopter surveys needed to validate nest sites. This data has proven to be increasingly valuable to wind energy developers during the design and modification phases of their projects.