FAA Agrees to Study Lighting Requirements for Bird-Killing Towers
02-27-2009 -
Cellphone towers. Photo: American Bird Conservancy
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced plans to conduct a study that will examine whether steady-burning sidelights on tall communications towers, which attract birds and cause them to collide with the towers during night migration, can be safely eliminated without endangering air traffic.
Unlike many waterfowl
and birds of prey, most songbirds migrate during the night,
with up to several billion birds having to navigate a landscape
littered with as many as 100,000 lighted towers each spring
and fall. American Bird Conservancy and its conservation partners
have been working together with the communications industry
in seeking this important study, which will help determine
whether the safety of pilots can be maintained while also
reducing the impact of lights on migrating birds.
Currently, the Federal Communications Commission
is engaged in a Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking that is examining ?the extent
of any effect of communications towers on migratory birds.?
The Notice seeks to examine a number of issues in connection
with avian-tower
impacts, including tower lighting.
FAA guidelines on towers over 200 feet
tall, currently require towers utilizing red or dual-type
lighting systems to use steady-burning sidelights mounted
at various intermediate levels depending on the height of
the tower. These requirements date back more than three decades,
and may no longer be applicable based on current lighting
technology. It has also since been shown that blinking lights
cause far fewer bird deaths. It I also noteworthy that traffic
signals on major roads often have white strobes in addition
to red lights to notify drivers, indicating that many motor
vehicle departments consider strobe lights to be more obvious
to people than steady lights.
The FAA will study the difference to pilots
of steady-burning lights compared to blinking lights, and
of red lights compared to white lights, and whether adequate
safety is maintained if side marker lights are extinguished
or operated at a reduced flash rate. This study will begin
in early 2009, with a report and recommendations expected
to be made public by the end of the year.
?Should the FAA determine the use
of side-mounted steady red lights can be eliminated for communications
towers without harm to air safety, American Bird Conservancy
will push for the FAA to amend their guidelines to reduce
avian
fatalities while still preserving air safety,? said
Darin Schroeder, American Bird Conservancy?s Vice President
of Conservation Advocacy. With thanks to The American Bird Conservancy
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