ROCKBRIDGE AREA CONSERVATION COUNCIL P.O. Box 564, Lexington, VA 24450 (540) 463-2330
[email protected] http://rockbridgeconservation.org April 25, 2016 Sarah Nystrom U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Virginia Field Office 6669 Short Lane Gloucester, VA 23061 Dear Sarah, As we discussed, I am sending records from the Rockbridge Bird Club for your use in reviewing the impacts and operating conditions of the proposed APEX Rocky Forge Wind Turbine Power Plant on North Mountain, Virginia, adjacent to the Botetourt County/Rockbridge County line. The reports are also posted online at: http://www.vmi.edu/Content.aspx?id=10737428051 . Also included for your reference are the most recent ten years of Audubon Christmas Bird Counts for the Rockbridge area (Lexington (VALE)) documenting winter occurring species (http://netapp.audubon.org/CBCObservation/Historical/ResultsByCount.aspx ). The Rockbridge Bird Club, one of the oldest in Virginia, has a long and highly respected history. The Club’s website at http://www.rockbridgebirdclub.org/ has the most recent and continually updated local information. As your technical team will undoubtedly appreciate, the notations on expected occurrence in the enclosed records (e.g. “rare and should not be expected to be seen in the county”) are intended for the bird watching public to assist in observing, and are not an indication of the possibility of conflict with the proposed power plant. Rather, potential impacts may be more significant for those rarely-sighted species where infrequent sighting is also an indication of reduced populations, shrinkage of range, or dissection of habitat especially for a project of this large number of turbines on a ridgeline within largely intact forested habitat.