Aiding Feathered Friends
Riley Adams is Manager of Electric Initiatives and Avian Protection Program for Ameren Illinois.
Since the 1970s, utility companies and conservation agencies have been working together to understand the interactions between migratory birds and power lines.
Finding solutions to protect our avian friends not only supports our ecosystem, but also protects the reliability of the power supply we all enjoy. If a bird is electrocuted on a power pole, it can cause outages, equipment damage, and increased costs of operation and maintenance.
Nowadays, there are plenty of low-cost, easy-to-install protective measures utility companies can take to help keep birds safe from potentially deadly situations. But being good stewards of the environment means doing more than merely complying with federal laws.