POWER LINES Keeping bald eagles alive

The electric company shares raptor-protection information with anyone who asks.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Six years ago, birds winging around the fishing port of Kodiak had a deadly problem: utility poles.
Bald eagles fond of roosting on the poles were being electrocuted when they touched the power lines and metal contacts.
The deaths, about six a year, and the expense of outages they caused has turned Kodiak Electric Association into a laboratory of sorts for raptor protection. The cooperative now even dispenses advice to companies as far away as Tampa, Fla.
"Kodiak is a very good example of the way it should be done," said Jill Birchell, wildlife protection special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage.
Kodiak Island is America's second largest, after Hawaii. Thirty miles from the mainland in the Gulf of Alaska, surrounded by water rich in salmon, halibut and cod, Kodiak is home to more than 2,500 bald eagles. When lakes and rivers on the mainland freeze, dozens more arrive for the winter.
Kodiak Electric Association's first choice for protecting eagles is replacing poles with ones that have at least 5 feet between contact points, according to operations manager Lanny VanMeter, who is credited with spearheading changes.
The extra space decreases the chance of an eagle's touching anything other than its feathers, which are insulated when dry, on a live wire.
But with 320 miles of lines, the company cannot afford to immediately replace them all.
Other methods
The second choice is to identify the most dangerous poles and retrofit them -- also an expensive proposition at an industry average of about $400 per pole and an interruption of power to customers.
If the company can't cover up or move exposed contact points on poles, it diverts the eagles from them.
Kodiak Electric has been aggressive in trying out equipment to save eagles. VanMeter looked for solutions that could be installed without interrupting service and that were cheap.
"If you can do something cost effectively," he said, "you can do a lot more of it."
VanMeter received a sample of the Firefly bird flapper, which uses color and motion to divert birds from power lines, and immediately ordered two dozen, said Firefly inventor Tim Chervick.
"He said we're always trying for new products," said Chervick, who lives in Salt Lake City. "Other companies, you have to give them some evidence of who's using it."
The Firefly has been successful protecting Kodiak eagles flying near wires in low light, VanMeter said. Other products, such as a device with sharp spikes designed to keep birds from landing, didn't live up to their billing.
When the utility couldn't find a commercial solution, it experimented. The biggest success has been a flimsy perch that eagles won't land on and won't fly or land beneath. It costs only $225 -- $25 for plastic irrigation tubing and $200 for labor -- and can be put up without power loss.
Kodiak Electric sends out packets of information on raptor protection to any utility that asks. It has had no eagle deaths in the last year.
In December, the Fish and Wildlife Service recognized Kodiak Electric with a wildlife stewardship award and VanMeter with a public service award.
What works
Birchell, the wildlife protection officer, said Kodiak documents every eagle death, diagnoses how it died, reports a proposed solution and then reports when changes are installed.
VanMeter said the utility has spent $27,000 since 1999 on eagle protection measures -- far less than the cost to customers of power interruptions caused by the birds' dying.
The Fish and Wildlife Service in 1998 prosecuted a Utah electric utility under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act for the "taking" of eagles and hawks by power lines. Moon Lake Electric Association ended up paying $100,000 in penalties.
Raptor electrocutions are a global problem, said Rick Harness, a wildlife biologist and utility consultant in Fort Collins, Colo. With the federal laws in the United States, "the solutions are in place," he said. "It's just a matter of implementing them."
Alaska has been one of the more aggressive states in dealing with the issue, along with Colorado and Florida, Harness said. He credits VanMeter with trying out raptor protection measures outside the laboratory.
"He's doing it in a real world setting," Harness said.