Kawailoa Wind, LLC is near the end of a four-year effort to amend its Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) so that it allows the additional take of endangered Hawaiian hoary bats. In the course of that effort, it also became clear that the company needed to add a new species to the list of those covered by its incidental take license\/permit.
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On July 21, 2017, a Hawaiian petrel, or ua\u2018u, was found dead at the wind farm. The species was not included in the facility\u2019s original HCP because the bird wasn\u2019t thought to regularly occur on the island.
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The new plan acknowledges that a 2017 study of bird calls \u201cdocumented that Hawaiian petrels may occur on portions of O\u2018ahu more than previously expected; however, surveys to date have not provided evidence that breeding colonies are present on the island.\u201d
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The plan asks for authorization to take as many as 19 adults and five chicks over the 20-year term of the incidental take license, which expires in 2032.
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\u201cThe total population of Hawaiian petrels is estimated between 19,000 and 52,000 individuals. The take authorization request \u2026 is between 0.126 percent and 0.046 percent of the total estimated population,\u201d the plan states.
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Modeling suggests there is an 80 percent chance the wind farm has killed up to 3 Hawaiian petrels.
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To mitigate its requested take, Kawailoa plans to fund predator control and burrow monitoring at the Hanakapiai and Hanakoa seabird colonies within the Hono O Na Pali Natural Area Reserve on Kaua\u2018i next year. The plan estimates the colonies will see an increase of 21.3 adult petrels and 71 chicks as a result.
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At the Endangered Species Recovery Committee meeting in July, where it voted to approve the plan, member Kawika Winter took issue with the plan\u2019s suggestion that the birds weren\u2019t breeding on O\u2018ahu.
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He said that every ornithologist he spoke to at the recent Hawai\u2018i Conservation Conference was sure there were breeding colonies on the island. Citing written testimony submitted by University of Hawai\u2018i biology professor Sheila Conant, he added that the plan does not include any data from studies in 2018 that he said \u201cindicate very strongly there is a breeding population.\u201d
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He said that a downed bird found in Waikiki had a patch on its body indicating it had been sitting on an egg and genetic tool to answer these questions,\u201d Kawailoa\u2019s Brita Woeck replied.
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\u201cWhat\u2019s more important? Trying to work through where are they on O\u2018ahu, trying to keep them alive on O\u2018ahu or doing something to contribute to the recovery of the species?\u201d asked member Michelle Bogardus, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service\u2019s representative on the committee.
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She said her agency discussed the new information with local bird experts to identify what the best mitigation option would be. \u201cWe very specifically talked about whether to do it on O\u2018ahu or do more money into research,\u201d she said. Their conclusion was that efforts on O\u2018ahu were less important than the work on Kaua\u2018i right now, she said.
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Dave Smith, administrator for the Department of Land and Natural Resources\u2019 Division of Forestry and Wildlife, said he\u2019s been looking for the petrels on O\u2018ahu his entire career. \u201cWe\u2019re finally getting to the point we\u2019re maybe homing in on something but we\u2019re not there yet,\u201d he said, suggesting that mitigation on O\u2018ahu could be a part of a future HCP amendment.
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\u201cRegardless of this HCP \u2026 we\u2019re going to continue looking for them. I guarantee you, when we find them we\u2019re going to manage it,\u201d he said.
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The committee voted to approve the plan with the addition of language acknowledging the experts\u2019 opinions that the birds are breeding on the island. Winter abstained from voting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 Teresa Dawson<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n