WIND SITING TOOL GETS BETTER

Mapping Tool Helps Wind Energy Companies Screen Early For Critical Habitat, Potential Wildlife Impacts

August 23, 2012 (American Wind Wildlife Institute)

“The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the American Wind Wildlife Institute (AWWI)…[have upgraded] the AWWI Landscape Assessment Tool (LAT), the state-of-the art wind-wildlife GIS mapping tool that they have jointly created. The LAT is designed to help wind energy developers with early screening for possible wildlife and habitat impacts…”

[Joe Fargione, Lead Scientist, The Nature Conservancy:] "The wind-wildlife mapping tool…just got more powerful with the addition of critical habitat overlays for 225 endangered species including numerous species of plants, insects, mammals, fish, birds, amphibians, and reptiles…”

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“Critical habitats are areas that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designates ‘as necessary to the survival or recovery of an endangered or threatened species,’ and which therefore ‘may require special management and protection.’ The LAT upgrade features critical habitat maps for the species for which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated such habitat and produced corresponding GIS layers.

“In all, LAT users can now display web-based maps drawn from over 700 data layers including land use and ownership, the potential distribution of endangered and threatened species, and other relevant wildlife and habitat data. The LAT is intended to be used by wind energy companies as they undertake preliminary, ‘Tier 1’ assessments of potential sites…”

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