A golden eagle circles above Buffalo County, Wis., in February 2009.
Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via AP
Billings, Montana, correspondent Matthew Brown and video journalist Emma Tobin collaborated on an exclusive all-formats package that revealed how the booming development of clean wind power threatens the preservation of iconic golden eagles in the U.S. West.
Brown was looking into a potential story on growing threats to the eagle, one of the U.S. West’s most spectacular predators, when a scientist tipped him off to the federal indictment and conviction of a Florida-based utility whose wind turbines had struck and killed more than 100 of the birds in Wyoming.
After a spot story on that case, Brown decided to keep digging. The veteran environmental reporter worked sources, searched documents and interviewed experts, finding scientists concerned that although the golden eagle is itself vulnerable to climate change and other perils, the boom in wind turbines to counter climate change could lead to the decline of eagle populations which thrive on the same open, windy landscapes preferred by wind energy developers.
Combing through public records, Brown discovered the federal government had issued almost three dozen permits in recent years allowing wind companies and others to “take” a combined 170 golden eagles in 2021, under a program that holds the companies responsible to offset each eagle lost with at least one eagle death avoided elsewhere.
Cattle graze near wind turbines at a wind farm along the Montana-Wyoming state line, June 13, 2022. The rush to build wind farms to combat climate change is colliding, literally, with preservation of one of the U.S. West’s most spectacular predators, the golden eagle. Scientists say the species is teetering on the edge of decline and worry that proliferating wind turbines could push them over the brink.
AP Photo / Emma H. Tobin
Bradley University professor Anant Deshwal points to cliffs where golden eagles are nesting near Cody, Wyo., June 15, 2022. He and a team of scientists were monitoring golden eagle populations in their natural habitat.
AP Photo / Emma H. Tobin
Ecologist Bryan Bedrosian of the Teton Raptor Center prepares to return a young golden eagle to its nest after banding the bird for future tracking as part of a long-term population study of the species, near Cody, Wyo., June 15, 2022. Bedrosian says combined eagle deaths from wind farms illegal shootings, vehicle collisions and lead poisoning threaten to push the species into decline if more isn’t done to address those problems.
AP Photo / Matthew Brown
The talons of a 6-week-old young golden eagle are show as the bird is handled during research work at a nesting site near Cody, Wyo., June 15, 2022. The recent criminal conviction of a wind energy company for illegal eagle killings in Wyoming underscored the clash between renewable energy and efforts to preserve the iconic western U.S. species.
AP Photo / Matthew Brown
A drop of blood from a young golden eagle is put into a vial by researcher Bryan Bedrosian of the Teton Raptor Center, after the bird was temporarily captured at a nesting site near Cody, Wyo., June 15, 2022. Lead poisoning is a significant cause of golden and bald eagle deaths.
AP Photo / Matthew Brown
A road along the Montana-Wyoming state line, June 13, 2022. The region is ground zero in the conflict between golden eagles and wind farms, which both find homes in open, windy landscapes. As wind turbines proliferate, scientists say golden eagle deaths from collisions with turbine blades could drive down the bird’s numbers — considered stable at best and likely to drop in some areas.
AP Photo / Emma H. Tobin
Wind turbines stand at a wind farm along the Montana-Wyoming state line, June 13, 2022.
AP Photo / Emma H. Tobin
To document the plight of the birds and efforts to preserve them, Brown and Tobin traveled to remote northern Wyoming where they accompanied scientists who were banding eagles for a long-term population study.
While juggling a visit to a nearby wind farm and an unexpected diversion to Yellowstone National Park for aerial images of flooding that devastated the region this summer, Tobin managed to capture striking images of researchers rappelling down a cliff to take a young eagle from its nest — and a face-to-face confrontation between a GoPro-wearing scientist and the bird. Tobin and Brown both made photos; New York photo editor Patrick Sison put together the gallery accompanying Brown’s engaging and deeply reported text story, as well as an abridged option for customers.
The story played widely on dozens of news sites in the U.S. and beyond, and ran on the front page of The Denver Post. The package also featured prominently on AP News, and the video had some 143,000 views on Twitter alone.