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Opinion: Environment: Do we have to choose between clean energy and the animals?

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It all seemed so simple once. You know: ‘Save the whales,’ ‘save the spotted owl’ and so on.

Now, black and white has given way to green versus green.

Take the Los Angeles Times story on Monday about wind turbines and golden eagles, ‘Wind Power Turbines in Altamont Pass Threaten Protected Birds.’

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As staff writer Louis Sahagun notes:

Scores of protected golden eagles have been dying each year after colliding with the blades of about 5,000 wind turbines along the ridgelines of the Bay Area’s Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area, raising troubling questions about the state’s push for alternative power sources.

Apparently, we can save the planet, or we can save the eagles -- but not both?

Well, not exactly. There are at least two lines of thinking.

One, the technology fix:

The neighboring Buena Vista Wind Energy Project recently replaced 179 aging wind turbines with 38 newer and more powerful 1-megawatt turbines. That repowering effort has reduced fatality rates by 79% for all raptor species and 50% for golden eagles, according to a study by Shawn Smallwood, an expert on raptor ecology in wind farms.

And two, the ‘keep things in perspective’ approach:

Nationwide, about 440,000 birds are killed at wind farms each year, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The American Wind Energy Assn., an industry lobbying group, points out that far more birds are killed each year by collisions with radio towers, tall buildings, airplanes, vehicles and in encounters with hungry household cats.

Though I think the lobbying group has a point, I like Door No. 1 better. If better turbines and careful site selection can reduce bird fatalities, I promise to do my part and keep my tabby under control.

And speaking of keeping things under control, it was ‘Animal Farm’ at the L.A. Times over the weekend. We had horses, pigs and gators:

‘Are Wild Horses Native to the U.S.? A Federal Court Seeks the Answer,’ ‘Wild Pigs Are Wearing Out Their Welcome in San Diego County’ and ‘Florida Gator Trappers Feel the Bite of Changing Economy.’

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In a nutshell: Some wild-horse advocates are trying to prove that they are a native species, which would mean greater protection for the animals; in San Diego County, authorities are sure that feral pigs there are not a native species and want to cull the several hundred running loose; and in Florida, where alligators used to be endangered but now have rebounded, there’s so little money to be made from hunting gators that even private contractors don’t want the work.

It’s enough to give those of us wanting to do the right thing for the planet a headache. Our quest for clean energy is killing protected birds; our efforts to protect the West are colliding with our affinity for remnants of the Wild West; and a success story in Florida has been so successful that the state’s oldest inhabitants are threatening to eat its newest ones. (Plus, we’ve apparently added another job to the list of ones Americans won’t do!)

The moral in all this? Maybe that line from the commercial of a few years back said it best:

It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.

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-- Paul Whitefield

Photos, from top: A prairie falcon chick. Credit: Don Kelsen / Los Angeles Times. A Nevada Department of Agriculture helicopter rounds up wild horses east of Reno, Nev., in 2002. Credit: Liz Margerum /Associated Press. A feral pig in eastern San Diego County. Credit: Department of Fish and Game. Johnny Douglas says he’s giving up on trapping nuisance alligators. Credit: Red Huber / Orlando Sentinel

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