Unlike primarily volant (flying) wildlife, the effects of wind energy development on terrestrial wildlife are relatively unknown. Potential impacts to terrestrial wildlife have been primarily focused on ungulate species, desert tortoise, and grouse species.
Results/Conclusions
All previous work on these species has generally concluded that there are no long-term negative impacts to these species. However, these species may be sensitive to immediate disturbance during construction, increased vigilance during operation, and habitat fragmentation effects similar to other forms of anthropogenic landscape features. The purpose of this presentation is to summarize the results of studies that investigated the potential impacts of wind energy development on these species.