The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and the Avian Power Line
Interaction Committee (APLIC) today released their updated
state-of-the-art guidance document Reducing Avian Collisions with Power
Lines: State of the Art in 2012.  This manual, originally published in
1994, identifies best practices and provides specific guidance to help
electric utilities and cooperatives, federal power administrations,
wildlife agencies and other stakeholders reduce bird collisions with power
lines.

The Service worked with APLIC, a voluntary partnership among the utility
industry, wildlife resource agencies, conservation groups, and
manufacturers of avian protection products, to revise the guidance using
the most current published science and technical information.

“This updated guidance provides state-of-the-art guidance to help
utilities and regulators site, design, and operate power lines and other
electrical infrastructure to reduce bird injury and mortality from power
line and infrastructure collisions, ensure compliance with Federal
conservation laws and enhance the reliability of electrical energy
delivery, ” said Service Director Dan Ashe.  “The cooperative effort
between the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Avian Power Line Interaction
Committee exemplifies what we can achieve when we work together for
conservation.”

On behalf of APLIC, Edison Electric Institute President Tom Kuhn said, “As
electric utility investment in the nation’s power grid continues to
increase, so too does the need to reduce bird injury and death from power
lines.  The industry’s commitment and efforts to work with the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service are contributing effective methods for reducing
collisions.  We encourage all stakeholders to use this new guidebook and
benefit from its invaluable advice.”

“APLIC-member utilities and the Service have had a long history of working
together to find practical solutions to minimize avian impacts from power
line construction and operations,” said PacifiCorp Avian Program Manager
and APLIC Chair Sherry Liguori.  “This updated collision manual edition,
along with the 2006 Electrocution Manual, the 2005 Avian Protection Plan
Guidelines, and Edison Electric Institute’s 2001 Introduction to Public
Participation, provides utilities with a toolbox of the latest technology,
science, expertise, and field experience.”

Since the early 1970s, the electric utility industry, wildlife resource
agencies including the Service, conservation groups, universities, and
manufacturers of avian protection products have worked together to
understand the causes of bird-power line collisions and electrocutions,
and to develop ways of preventing bird mortalities, as well as associated
power outages.  APLIC leads the electric utility industry in protecting
avian resources, while enhancing reliable energy delivery, and is often
cited as the example of a partnership that works well for the industry,
the agencies, the conservation community, and the power consumers.

Reducing Avian Collisions with Power Lines was first published by APLIC
and the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) in 1994 under the title Mitigating
Bird Collisions with Power Lines, as a comprehensive review of avian
collisions with power lines and recommendations for minimizing them.  The
2012 version was co-authored by several U.S. utilities and a Canadian
utility; wildlife biologists from the Service, the USDA Rural Utilities
Service, and the U.S. Department of Energy; and representatives from the
consulting firm Normandeau Associates. A companion document, Suggested
Practices for Avian Protection on Power Lines, was published by APLIC and
the Service in 2006.

Both guidance documents, as well as other materials for reducing bird
collisions with power lines are available at www.aplic.org.

This release was produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.