Eagle nest monitoring important work for Basin Electric’s environmental crew

Some things just don’t mix – such as eagles and electrical transmission lines.

But somehow these birds of prey have found a connection, often building their nests of sticks and small branches atop transmission structures. These edifices provide ample nesting and roosting sites and make good hunting perches for the birds.

But nesting at these locations also comes with a risk.

If a raptor or other bird connects with a transmission line, depending on the size, they may be electrocuted and/or damage the transmission line. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), as protected species eagles and their activity on the structures must be monitored to make sure the birds remain safe. Monitoring also helps ensure that transmission lines are protected.

Enter Ryan King and the environmental crew at Basin Electric. 

Monitoring eagle nest activity is an interesting job for the team. It is part and parcel of their work to make sure transmission lines operate reliably and pose little risk to wildlife, especially those listed as endangered species.

King, environmental coordinator, says: “I like eagles. I want to make sure they’re safe while also understanding that Basin Electric has a service to provide.” In depicting the work of eagle nest monitoring, he describes some of the steps.

During the pre-construction environmental permitting process, monitoring begins with an aerial nest survey of the location, using GPS mapping of nests and determining to which bird of prey a nest belongs – falcon, hawk, or eagle. The team doesn’t want any wildlife to connect with a transmission line, of course, but since eagles are endangered species efforts must be made to protect them. The team must inform the Fish and Wildlife Service, which has strict regulations about eagle nest monitoring. “Remember,” the agency says, “your first responsibility is to avoid disturbance and/or impact to eagles and their nests.”

“If the nest is within the USFWS avoidance buffer, that is when we must apply for and obtain a disturbance permit,” King says. Specifics of monitoring nests is often on a case-to-case basis. If the nest is active, monitoring takes place every other week from January through August, the typical period when eagles roost. He says the team conducted bi-weekly monitoring this year at a bald eagle nest along the Roundup to Kummer Ridge transmission line between Killdeer and Watford City, North Dakota.

Monitoring of eagle nests on existing transmission structures start with TSM line crews who monitor transmission structures for the nests of eagles and other birds. If an eagle’s nest is found on an existing transmission structure, and it is found to potentially endanger the birds and transmission, measures will be taken, under direction of the Fish and Wildlife Service, to remove the nest.

Typically, a nest cannot be removed if eggs or chicks are present. If granted permission and there are no eggs, chicks, or eaglets in it, the nest is removed from the structure and either buried or burned on site. Otherwise, the birds tend to pick up the branches to rebuild their nest. King gives kudos to linemen, recalling how one bitterly cold morning in March they climbed a more than 100-foot structure to remove a nest, stuffing “five big garbage bags with nest material, including animal bones, feathers, feces, etc.” They then burned the nest debris.

“We want to protect and deter them from nesting in dangerous locations and keep the line or structure from having to be repaired,” he says. A USFWS biologist prefers to be onsite during any eagle nest removal activity by the cooperative.

The environmental team’s work isn’t done once a nest is removed. They must monitor eagle activity at the site for two years following a nest removal, because the birds will reuse the nest locations, often for years. King says eagles can be determined birds. “A couple of years ago, Basin removed a nest from a structure, and the next year the eagle built a nest on the next structure down the line,” he says. “So, they can be hard to deter!”

Eagles are not the only protected species that Basin Electric monitors. Kings says his team also monitors the Dakota skipper, a butterfly that has only a three-week lifespan and is active during that period, between June and July, among the prairie grasses and flowers of the Great Plains. There’s also the piping plover, a small shorebird that often nests on the sandbars and shorelines of the Missouri River and other waters; and the whooping crane, commonly found within Basin Electric’s service territory.

A person might not typically think of wildlife monitoring as part of the work of a generation and transmission cooperative, but King says it is done more frequently than one might expect. It is important work that helps ensure the safety of both transmission lines and protected species. 

Keeping track of all the wildlife and monitoring times can be tough at times, especially for an already busy schedule. But King, who has been on site at some monitoring stations and coordinates monitoring with the team, has a plan that seems to work.   

“Lots of notes,” he says. “Lots of charts, lots of reminders, lots of calendars.”