Ferruginous hawk habitat is on hillsides, cliffs, rock outcroppings and in trees — near the Horse Heaven Clean Energy Center’s planned site. That’s changing where developers can build parts of the wind, solar and battery project.
The Washington State Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, or EFSEC, unanimously passed a resolution in a meeting on Wednesday to strike dozens of planned wind turbines from the massive project planned outside the Tri-Cities.
The Tri-Cities area is home to more than 60% of Washington state’s ferruginous hawks. The birds are listed as endangered in Washington, and some of their nests are right in the middle of the largest proposed wind farm in the state.
A technical advisory group found over 40 historic hawk nests near the proposed site and suggested a .6-mile buffer to protect most of the nests.
However, they said a few other nests needed more attention.
This past spring, a breeding pair and fledglings were found in a nest. Although no turbines are planned near this new nest, four other viable nesting sites are nearby, along with foraging habitat.
That led the advisory group to suggest a larger 2-mile buffer around that area.
In a letter to EFSEC, Scout Clean Energy senior project manager Dave Kobus wrote that decision could cut 39 turbines, a solar array and cause them to reroute electrical infrastructure.
In addition, Kobus wrote the hawks are only in Washington during their breeding season, and the trees with some hawk nests are dead, and therefore won’t be around long.
Rather than preference, the hawks are forced into these nests because of development around the Tri-Cities, he wrote.
“In short, this means that while ferruginous hawk may occasionally nest in the Horse Heaven Hills in the short-term future, a sizeable breeding population is unlikely to ever recover,” Kobus wrote in the letter to the council.
Over the last 10 years, Kobus wrote, no more than one active ferruginous hawk nest per year has been observed on the proposed site.
Ferruginous hawks typically use native shrubsteppe and grassland habitat, croplands and grazinglands, according to the advisory group.
The size of Horse Heaven Clean Energy Center has been challenged for years.
Activists in the Tri-Cities argue the facility will ruin ridgeline views and harm property values.
After much debate, EFSEC initially recommended slashing the size of the project nearly in half. It hoped to protect the hawks and sensitive cultural areas for nearby tribes. It also wanted to allow space for aerial firefighting.
Former Gov. Jay Inslee didn’t agree with those recommendations, directing the council to reconsider its restrictions.
EFSEC initially recommended a mandatory 2-mile setback for all previously documented nests before Inslee struck it down.
“We will not meet our state’s urgent clean energy needs if the path to a final recommendation from the Council spans multiple years and contains conditional micrositing process requirements that further prolong final siting approval for a significant portion of the primary project components,” Inslee wrote.
That led the council to appoint a technical advisory group to study ferruginous hawk nests.
Next, advisors plan to consider how the project could affect other wildlife potentially in the area, including burrowing owls and Townsend’s ground squirrels.
