# Whooping Crane flock numbers plunge during Winter 2011-2012.



## fish or swim (Sep 10, 2012)

I am not sure what to think about this but Mr. Wiegand certainly appears to have the evidence to back it up. Full stories are in the links.


http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/2012/are-wind-turbines-slaughtering-whooping-cranes/?var=cna

It&#8217;s obvious from the graph that in the last several years mortality has skyrocketed. The fact that no Whooping Crane death has been ever recorded at a wind farm is true&#8212;though meaningless. Wind farms are patrolled daily by personnel looking for bodies, and a huge white bird would be hard to miss. By now everyone should realize that Big Wind operates in complete secrecy, with absolute control of their wind farms. (Don&#8217;t believe me? Try changing the regulations so a body could not be hidden. Such an initiative would meet head-on with every ounce of resistance the industry could muster.)
A sliced-up Whooping Crane body will never be produced from a wind farm. And should one happen to die with a transmitter attached, wind energy employees will simply take the transmitter and give it a ride away from the site.


http://www.windturbinesyndrome.com/...be-lost-within-5-years-avian-wildlife-expert/

I will tell you about the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), whose biologists monitor Whooping Crane survival. USFWS biologists did not find or produce the bodies of the hundreds of missing Whooping Cranes that have disappeared over the last several years. In fact, if you look at USFWS reports, you will notice they always sidestep the wind turbine danger for cranes. (Incidentally, while examining these reports, notice the lack of GPS and tracking data given about these birds.)


http://www.examiner.com/article/bre...yway-whooping-crane-population-is-big-trouble

_Note from Jim Wiegand - I sent this to the LA times Yesterday. With in 1/2hour I was on the phone with a very interested reporter. He was interested because it truly is a big story. I was in the middle of talking with him when the Editor urgently interrupted our phone call. He said he had to talk with him and we would talk a little later. We never did. It appears that *someone at the top pulled the plug. *I have had it happen before. You and I both know how the money works with these corporations. Jim_

In the 12 month period *between July of 2008 and June 2009 57 whooping cranes died with 53 bodies that were never recovered. I had to dig to get this information. *


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## Mike Barnard (Sep 16, 2012)

Mr. Wiegand's story is a complete fabrication. He's not a credible source on whooping cranes.

First, record numbers of whooping cranes are returning to Aransas National Wildlife Preserve this year, according to the people who actually work with whooping cranes.

A record whooping crane flock is expected at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge for the second straight year. Refuge manager Dan Alonso said there could be enough cranes making their annual migration to the area to break last years count of about 280.

Were eagerly anticipating approximately 300 birds this year, Dan Alonso said..

Alonso said recent rainfall of about 2 inches has replenished drinking water sources for the whoopers, and about 20 ponds created by windmill pumps are available for the birds to drink..

http://www.scrippsnews.biz/content/record-whooping-crane-flock-expected-2nd-year-texas?page=6


No whooping crane has even been startled by a wind turbine according to all of the evidence. The US FWS, whooping crane preservation experts and the wind industry are doing incredible things to ensure that no whooping crane is injured by a wind turbine, including completely relocating proposed power lines, stopping development of entire wind farms, hiring wildlife biologists during migration season to watch for whooping cranes and shutting down wind farms if whooping cranes are spotted within a mile of the farm.

Mr. Wiegand isn't a credible source. He has never worked with whooping cranes. He has never worked professionally or academically as a wildlife biologist, or written any peer-reviewed material in the area. He's an antiques dealer from California who studied undergraduate biology 40 years ago, hates wind turbines and is VP of an anti-wind lobbyist organization.

Mr. Wiegand is promoting his monstrous, fabricated accusations wherever he can due to his hatred of wind energy.

Supporting evidence, links and quotations for all of the above are here:
http://www.quora.com/Wind-Power/Are...ndangered-whooping-cranes/answer/Mike-Barnard


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## woodsman rick (Jan 13, 2003)

I winter in Rockport TX which is about 30 south of the refuge. One of the places I wade fish the cranes fish also, it's about 15 miles from their winter roosting area, this year, December - March, we saw more cranes than in the last few years. I'm not saying this is scientifically sound just my observation. I sure hope they do increase in numbers because it is neat fishing within 50' of these wonderful birds. People come from all over the states to see them and we are so lucky to see them for hours in the mornings.

Rick


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## fish or swim (Sep 10, 2012)

Well there you have it folks. The two sides of the issue. The wind industry claiming they have never harmed a single feather on a birds head. The people who care abut birds saying they are going to kill them all. It doesnt seem like a compromise will be easily reached.


And thanks Woodsman, Rick that was nice part that you added. I always enjoy fishing just about anywhere and watching the birds come along and fishing too. And I really notice a difference when I go to a place that has low numbers of birds.


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## Mike Barnard (Sep 16, 2012)

Fish or swim makes an assumption and an overstatement.

The assumption is that I'm part of the wind industry. I'm just a grassroots advocate for the cleanest, safest, most wildlife friendly, CO2e-neutral form of electricity we've come up with to date. No affiliations with and no money from the wind folks.

The overstatement is that no one in the wind industry or advocating for wind energy would make a silly statement like no birds being harmed. This particular statement is about whooping cranes, which are pretty much the most observed bird in the world.

Wind farms kill plenty of birds. Of course, they kill a lot fewer birds per mWh than fossil fuel generation. One study indicates that if it were possible to replace all fossil fuel generation with wind farms, 70 MILLION FEWER birds would die annually. 

The wind industry, the USFSW and a bunch of pro-bird organizations are working closely together to minimize impacts of wind energy on birds, especially endangered birds. They're doing a pretty good job at it too. 

But they are doing this despite being much, much better for bird populations (and every other type of wildlife) than the fossil fuel alternatives, which seem to be getting a pass on this issue.

For some interesting reading, have a look at this material:
http://www.quora.com/Wind-Power/How...lity-due-to-wind-turbines/answer/Mike-Barnard


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## Jim Wiegand (Sep 19, 2012)

Below on this site is a comment from a Mr. Barnard. I have been told that Mr. Barnard works for IBM, a company which makes billions yearly on their products and services related to wind energy production. He also lives in a city condo and has no expertise with wildlife. I advise all readers to keep in mind that my comments are based upon a lifetime of experience with wildlife in the field. I am still in the field several times a week. This background information should help readers to understand that his internet comments read much like all the wind industry environmental impact reports, which have been rigged for 28 years. 

People had better wake up to the fact that the current state of the whooping crane population is being caused by wind energy installations. 

For the first time since their recuperation program, the small Whooping Crane population has been shrinking. This coincides with the installation of thousands of wind turbines, and associated high-tension power lines, across their migration corridor.

Another coincidence: their population is now being counted differently, by extrapolation, instead of by direct count. Yet it is not hard to count 200-300 large white birds which can be found in well-known established winter territories year after year. The fact that no whooping crane death has ever been recorded at a wind farm is true, but it means nothing. The industry posturing of no dead body, equals no evidence, and therefore we are innocent is statement of total fabrication. It is obvious they will never come clean.

By now everyone should realize that industry operates in complete secrecy with total control of their wind farms. Wind farms are patrolled daily by personnel looking for bodies and a huge white bird would be hard to miss. A sliced up whooping crane body will never be produced from a wind farm until they get their incidental kill permits (this is in their plans) from the USFWS. Some whooping cranes are wearing GPS transmitters, but if one happens to die at a wind farm with a transmitter on, they know the drill, just take the transmitter and give it a ride away from the site.


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## Mike Barnard (Sep 16, 2012)

Mr. Wiegand's embarrassing lack of knowledge of IBM is at least only embarrassing, or at least he should be embarrassed. An assertion that IBM makes billions from the wind industry is just hilarious; as I understand it from the peripheries of those internal groups, we donated some time and technology in a joint effort with one wind energy manufacturer. We are engaged in smart grid projects necessary for all forms of renewables and demand management, but again those are a tiny portion of IBM's business. It's possible that Mr. Wiegand really has no idea what IBM is as an iconic American technology company that has been around for 100 years and is now a global leader in computer hardware, services and software selling to every country and every type of business. After all, it would take typing IBM into Google to get a sense of what the company was about.


On the other hand, his almost equal lack of knowledge of whooping cranes and insistence that the entire group of organizations and people devoted to protecting them are engaged in a conspiracy to cover up deaths is arguably libellous. 

He is fundamentally saying that Dan Alonso and Tom Stehn before him are liars. These guys are the good guys, working their butts off to preserve these magnificent birds.

Mr. Wiegand is an antiques dealer who hates wind turbine and who will defame anyone who disagrees with him.


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## Jim Wiegand (Sep 19, 2012)

So Mr. Barnard, Do you or do you not work for IBM? Then tell us about all the wildlife research you have done from your downtown condo located a few miles from IBM. For more information on the Whooping cranes visit the Whooping Crane Conservation Association web site and look up flock status. Make sure you up the graph that shows their steep population decline that began with the explosion of turbines that have invaded their migration route. Also when you get there you can also read what Tom Stehn (Quotes)had to say about the newly adopted (Bogus) USFWS method of counting/exaggerating whooping cranes.
If anyone does not believe a Government agency would rig data or create a cover story for industry, I have proof of it and can provide a link.


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## Jim Wiegand (Sep 19, 2012)

*Mr Barnard, If you are in fact the employee listed below that I found listed on the IBM website, then I wonder if stockholders and upper management at IBM are aware of the many Mr. Barnard's internet rants on the innocence of wind industry and the dying whooping crane population. If so, all this could prove to be very embarrassing since the Mr. Barnard I know has virtually no knowledge of wildlife nor has even read a single wind industry mortality or population study. But if they are aware of it and you are the same Mr. Barnard, then the mountain of **Mr. Barnard internet posts could prove to be a form of great embarrassment for IBM and the wind industry. *The following employee(s) were found.
*Mike (M.G.)** Barnard*
Email:
[email protected]
Telephone:
1-416-478-2902 
Location:
Canada
*For those that are interested here some links about the wind energy finances of IBM: **Wind power is the fastest growing source of electricity
in the world http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/smart_grid/article/wind_power.html *



*Quarterly earnings*

* http://www.ibm.com/investor/2q12/press.phtml*
*· Net income: *


GAAP: $3.9 billion, up 6 percent;
Operating (non-GAAP): $4.1 billion, up 8 percent;
 · Gross profit margin: 


GAAP: 47.6 percent, up 1.2 points;
Operating (non-GAAP): 48.2 percent, up 1.5 points;
 · Revenue: $25.8 billion, down 3 percent, up 1 percent adjusting for currency; 
· Free cash flow of $3.7 billion, up 9 percent; 
· Software revenue, flat, up 4 percent adjusting for currency; 
· Services revenue down 3 percent, up 1 percent adjusting for currency: 


Services pre-tax income up 18 percent;
 · Services backlog of $136 billion, down 6 percent, flat adjusting for currency; 
· Systems and Technology revenue down 9 percent, down 7 percent adjusting for currency; 
· Growth markets revenue up 2 percent, up 8 percent adjusting for currency; 
· Business analytics revenue up 13 percent in the first half; 
*·** Smarter Planet revenue up more than 20 percent in the first half; *
· Cloud revenue doubled first-half 2011 revenue; 
· Full-year 2012 operating (non-GAAP) EPS expectations raised to at least $15.10 from at least $15.00.


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## Mike Barnard (Sep 16, 2012)

Mr. Wiegand doesn't know when to stop exposing his ignorance and malice.

It is insufficient that he libel the amazing protectors of whooping cranes, now he's talking about attacking me personally, but assumes this is meaningful.

For clarity, I work for IBM, but do not post on their behalf, as is stated in my public profiles. I am a private and volunteer advocate for the cleanest, safest, most wildlife friendly source of electrical generation as a significant portion of our energy systems. I do this on my own time. I counter anti-wind myths and outright lies such as Mr. Wiegand's.

To repeat for Mr. Wiegand's benefit, IBM makes the vast majority of its revenue from industries not even peripherally involved with wind energy; it's unlikely that even peripherally wind energy related projects represent 0.0000000001% of IBMs bottom line. 

So telling IBM or someone in the wind industry that I'm posting stuff on the internet that's for wind energy and disputing his lies about whooping cranes is meaningless.

So, Mr. Wiegand should go ahead and pull that imaginary trigger. He doesn't have a gun with blanks. He doesn't have an unloaded gun. He doesn't have a water pistol. Heck, he doesn't even have a stick he's pretending is a gun.

And he's continuing to lie about whooping crane deaths and wind energy. 

I leave this thread for the Michigan Sportsmen to determine who is more credible: the antiques dealer pretending to be an international raptor expert and wildlife biologist who libels real experts and threatens people who disagree with him, or the guy who is pointing it out and not claiming to be anything he's not.


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## Jim Wiegand (Sep 19, 2012)

Mr Barnard, You forgot to talk about your condo life in the city and your lack of wildlife expertise.


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## OH-YEAH!!! (Jun 18, 2009)

Wind power is the next great energy source of the future.

Because it _may_ have some impact on bird migrations and because it does annoy some people to have to share their living space with the unsightly towers are zero reason to restrict wind power.

Each day, massive German made wind turbine blades are being unloaded in Muskegon. Why weren't those expensive and labor intensive blades made in Michigan? Because the oil industry and natural gas industry and coal industry has used "bird migrations" as an excuse to convince this Nation's leaders to not embrace wind technology? 

Birds get hit by cars. Birds get eaten by raptors. Should bald eagles be eliminated from Wisconsin and Texas because they prey on whooping crane chicks? Of course not! Should our Nation's best chance at a clean, renewable energy source in the form of wind power be restricted in the least because of speculation about bird migration patterns? NO.

Over in Germany there are factory workers smiling that their plants are busy supplying wind turbine blades to the Americans.


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## sjk984 (Jan 4, 2010)

Jim Wiegand said:


> Mr Barnard, You forgot to talk about your condo life in the city and your lack of wildlife expertise.


Your first four post directly attack another member... this a public forum of sportsmen. You clearly dont belong here. All you can do is try to dig up.dirt in people.. you wont have to dig far to get mine.. your points are meaningless and retract from your cause when you try to mix them personal attacks..

I am pro wind energy go run and tell my roofing company im associating with eco terrorist. Sad fact is an infinitely small number of people think like you so you have to attack others to make your point. Heres a point FO

Outdoor Hub mobile, the outdoor information engine


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## Mike Barnard (Sep 16, 2012)

Apparently I must increase the clarity setting again for Mr. Wiegand.

Mr. Wiegand is making extraordinary claims:
- that whooping crane populations are being destroyed by wind turbines
- that there is a massive 28 year cover-up of bird deaths by the USFWS and every other organization associated with this

In order for his claims to be taken seriously, there would have to be extraordinary evidence:
- many confirmed whooping crane deaths by wind farms (there are zero recorded deaths due to wind farms)
- many credible external sources saying the same thing (no one except Mr. Wiegand is making this monstrous claim)
- preferably something peer-reviewed (no peer reviewed studies on this of course)

In fact, as I post above, the manager of the Aransas Refuge is looking forward to a second year of record returns by whooping cranes. His statements directly contradict Mr. Wiegand, yet Mr. Wiegand ignores them.

In order for Mr. Wiegand to be a credible communicator of his extraordinary claims, his credentials would have to be at least tenuously credible:
- have worked closely with whooping crane preservation (Mr. Wiegand's only contribution to whooping crane preservations are these monstrous and unfounded lies)
- have worked professionally or academically in wildlife biology (Mr. Wiegand did undergraduate study 40 years ago in biology, nothing published, never worked professionally or academically in the field)
- not be aligned with an organization with competing interests (Mr. Wiegand is VP of an anti-wind turbines lobbyist group)
- be working in wildlife preservation (Mr. Wiegand is an antiques dealer)
- be supported and acclaimed by other academic or professional wildlife biologists (Mr. Wiegand has no support or acclaim from actual wildlife biologists)

Where I live and what I have done in wildlife biology are immaterial to this discussion. I'm like the little boy on the side of the road pointing out that the emperor has no clothes, excepting that Mr. Wiegand is only an emperor in his own mind. I live in cities. I live in condos. So what? I'm not making the extraordinary claims and I am referencing actual experts over and over.

My dad was President of Hunters and Anglers associations in half-a-dozen towns we lived in when I was growing up (he loved fishing). They were people like the Michigan Sportsmen, devoted to preserving the wildlife that they depended on for their sports and often their food. Ducks Unlimited is an organization like that. It's done tremendous good for duck population and habitat, coincidentally allowing a small fraction of ducks to be taken for sport and eating by sportsmen.

When I showed my Dad what Mr. Wiegand was writing versus the reality of the situation, he was the one who said that Mr. Wiegand's lies are monstrous, and is distributing the debunking to his network.

Wind farms are tremendously good for the environment and wildlife. They are the least damaging form of generation for all forms of wildlife we have. They use 1 / 500th the fresh water of coal plants, and 1 / 600th the fresh water of nuclear plants. They emit 1 / 100th the greenhouse gases of coal plants over their entire lives per mWh, and 1 / 50th the greenhouse gases of natural gas. They consume next to no land (typically less than 1% of a given area), but happen to be spread out. We have to be careful about siting them where there are endangered populations or habitat, or where migrating birds are funnelled into a narrow area and fly at the height of the rotors (whooping cranes, incidentally fly at 500-2000 feet, above the height of wind turbines).

Damaging and libellous claims like Mr. Wiegand's need to be challenged wherever they occur. They distract from the hard work of organizations devoted to preserving our wildlife, whether they are the endangered whooping cranes or a common duck.


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## Jim Wiegand (Sep 19, 2012)

Mr Barnard, You know nothing of wildlife, nothing of my expertise and really have nothing to contribute to the whooping crane discussion. I can also tell you have read not a single wildlife study. The fact that I am an independent Wildlife Biologist actually gives me much more credibility with this issue. You are however bringing a lot of attention to the crisis facing the whooping cranes and for that I am grateful. My goal is very simple. I want to educate public so they can force the industry to move on to new wind turbine designs. 
* Below is a list of important links for readers wanting to understand the true mortality impacts associated with the propeller style wind turbine: http://www.examiner.com/wildlife-co...e-exterminated-by-so-called-green-wind-energy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQHumeUhIHI
http://vermontenergyoptions.org/
http://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/08/27/golden-eagle-expert-calls-transcanadas-eagle-study-bogus/
http://www.examiner.com/wildlife-conservation-in-national/bird-slaughterhouse-repowering-altamont-pass-with-smoke-and-mirrors
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/8319
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/8122
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/5302
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/5109
http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/3146
http://wildbirdsbroadcasting.blogspot.com/2011/08/wiegand-comments-wind-energy-guidelines.html
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8031983-proposed-wind-farm-imperils-falcons-other-threatened-species
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/4041421-california-condors-wind-farms-on-collision-course
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/3867190-deadly-blades-death-toll-mounts-as-wind-farms-massacre-birds-of-prey
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/3765414-italys-birdsofprey-being-lost-to-wind-farms
http://www.examiner.com/wildlife-conservation-in-national/wind-farms-accused-of-concealing-deaths-of-protected-species
http://savetheeaglesinternational.org/



*


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## Mike Barnard (Sep 16, 2012)

It's good of Mr. Wiegand to post links to all of the places his lies are quoted without assessment of credibility. Most of these have been found and debunking comments added to the thread, but I might have missed one or two.

The Examiner articles are by Cathy Taibbi, another person who believes that wind farms are horrific for birds despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

East County Magazine's editor / publisher is also rabidly anti-wind and will publish anything that attacks wind farms, regardless of source. She might be doing some good in the midst of the noise by ensuring that construction and siting standards are upheld for her local wind farm, but it's hard to tell with all of the horrid stuff like Mr. Wiegand's that she publishes.

Save the Eagles International is the misleadingly named and tiny anti-wind lobbyist organization that Mr. Wiegand belongs to.

Wind Watch is an anti-wind lobbyist site that once again will publish anything that says anything negative about wind energy without assessment.

Allvoices is a blogging site that Mr. Wiegand posts his bizarre conclusions to.

He missed a couple of references where anti-PTC lobbyists are quoting him.

None of the these references are to any external studies or sources, just repetitions of Mr. Wiegand's fabrications. None of these are of course peer-reviewed in any way, unless you count anti-wind lobbyists who will believe any smear on wind energy as peers. 

None of these sites have anything to do with whooping crane preservation.

I do urge readers to click through to a sampling of these sites to validate what I'm saying. A random sampling will be enough.

Just as it's good of Mr. Wiegand to demonstrate that he has had nothing published in any wildlife journal and nothing he says has been peer-reviewed or validated by anyone else, it's also good of Mr. Wiegand to admit he has no credentials, no professional experience and no academic experience.


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## Jim Wiegand (Sep 19, 2012)

It is a very good thing to bring wildlife these issues to sportsman. I have done it before. A group of organized sportsman brought a lawsuit against the Department of Fish and Game specifically because of my 13 years of research. A Senate Bill was also introduced and passed because of my research on the deer herds in CA. Deer tag allocations were also drastically reduced in Northeastern Ca because of my research. 


I was also the one that introduced the idea or concept to use DNA analysis in poaching investigations in CA. I presented the idea to Game Warden Del Huff at the site where I found the remains of five poached Elk. We caught the perpetrators and it ended up being the first felony poaching conviction ever in CA. Mr. Barnard knows some of these things but likes to paint me as a crackpot because propaganda is the only defense the wind industry has against my research. There is much more about my background as a wildlife biologist that the wind industry does not know. This information will be coming out in my expert testimony for a lawsuit against the wind industry.


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## Mike Barnard (Sep 16, 2012)

I sincerely believe Mr. Wiegand has done something good in the past. It's extremely hard to tell what it is due to the self-aggrandizing and inflated statements he makes about his present work, and the complete lack of documentation of any of his claims available on line, or provided by him.

It's quite likely he was involved in some way in all of the things above that he claims. It's unlikely that he was a primary and sole actor in the way he states given his present level of fabrication.

And it's a pity that whatever good he might once have done is so overshadowed by his current monstrous fabrications.

There are good arguments to be made against specific wind farms in specific locations. If Mr. Wiegand limited himself to verifiable specifics, he might add value to the ongoing safe placement of wind farms.

But he doesn't. He claims that the entire method of bird mortality counting at wind farms is wrong and by a factor of ten, despite the efforts of a dozen agencies and hundreds of dedicates professionals and academics to ensure accuracy (in fact, per turbine mortality rates in California have declined substantially with modern wind turbines, hence his need to massively inflate the numbers). He claims that it's an intentional cover-up of 28 years by many of those same dedicated professionals and agencies. Despite the complete and utter lack of evidence of any whooping crane's even being annoyed by a wind farm, he claims that they will be extinct solely due to wind farms in five years.

Whatever legacy he might have had, he is burning to the ground with his paranoid and delusional fabrications now.

I would counsel Mr. Wiegand to stick to the empirical, the observable and the local. I would counsel Mr. Wiegand to stick to simplicity and humility about his claims about himself. If he were to do so, he might return to adding value to the wildlife he claims to love so much. 

As it is, he spreads fabrications about wind energy which if successful could only lead to more fossil fuel generation, with its attendant wildlife damaging emissions, acid rain fallout, greenhouse gas emissions and fouled rivers, bays and gulfs due to spills.

He tells outrageous lies about a form of generation that is so much more positive for the wildlife he loves, and ignores the terrible toll of fossil fuel generation it supplants.

Local. Observable. Empirical. Humble. Mr. Wiegand is none of these things.


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## Jim Wiegand (Sep 19, 2012)

Mr. Barnard, I see that you just did some backpedaling. You will be doing a lot more before I am done with you because I have made some extraordinary discoveries and contributions as a wildlife biologist. There is still a lot more about my life as a wildlife biologist you and others do not know about. One of those contributions I will be working on later today. It has to do with Ravens. By the way do you want the Senate Bill number? How about some letters from some Senators that worked on it?


I know dealing with me bothers you immensely, but it is possible that one day your employer (IBM) and the wind turbine company (GE) that you hold stock in, will one day be asking me for advice on the development of a bird safe wind turbine design.


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## OH-YEAH!!! (Jun 18, 2009)

This thread is why Germans and Chinese beat Americans to the clean energy industry.

Shame on you both.


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