Last March, Clent Bailey found an electrocuted golden
eagle beneath a power pole near Roswell, N.M. Bailey, who works as
a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, then uncovered
an electrocuted hawk under the eagle, a victim of the same “problem
pole.”
The experience launched Bailey’s campaign
to retrofit poles and strengthen regulations. Every year, narrowly
spaced wires kill a large percentage of trumpeter swans and
whooping cranes when they migrate through treeless areas, according
to Wyoming Fish and Game’s Wyoming Wildlife magazine. In addition,
thousands of eagles and hawks receive fatal zaps each year when
they perch on poles and touch two wires
simultaneously.
Bailey says simple solutions like
wooden perches and insulated wires could end the needless deaths.
With public help, power companies can identify the poles and
insulate wires, but he worries rural electrical cooperatives don’t
have the funds to spend up to $150 retrofitting each
pole.
Instead, Bailey, who has distributed
100,000 pamphlets to increase public awareness of bird
electrocutions, wants a federal fund established to begin fixing
old poles. He also recently suggested stricter guidelines for new
poles to New Mexico’s Rural Electrical
Association.
To report dead birds or suspicious
poles, call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 800/299-0196 or
Clent Bailey at 505/883-7877. An updated book, Suggested Practices
for Raptor Protection on Power Lines: The State of the Art in 1994,
should be available this month from Raptor Research Foundation
Inc., 12805 St. Croix Trail, Hastings, MN 55033.
* Katharine Bill
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Old power poles electrocute eagles.
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