A follow up to earlier updates-
I had an very good conversation with the manager of vegetation management
for ATC. She was both interested and concerned that I was treated as
poorly as I was. She said that their crews and sub contractors are all
trained to look for nests and nestlings and to not remove brush when they
are found. Unfortunately, in order to stop the clearing, evidence must be
found to prove they weren't looking. Well a friend and I spent a good
chunk of Friday afternoon checking cleared brush that hadn't been chipped
yet and found a couple nests. Additionally, we found an active nest with
nestlings just 20-30 yards from where the guys quit work on Friday. We
took photos and forwarded all of them to the rep from ATC - she was very
appreciative and said she'd use them communicating with the specialists
over the weekend-Hopefully, this will stop them from widespread clearing
during the nesting season- We'll see what happens this Monday and Tuesday-
To be continued........
Dan Panetti
S.E. Ozaukee county
On Thu, May 30, 2019 at 5:20 PM d pan <birdmandan813@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Thanks to all for your suggestions and support- Karen forwarded me contact
info from a local ATC employee tied to vegetation management- I have a call
in and will update all via the list-
Dan
On Thu, May 30, 2019 at 3:25 PM Michael John Jaeger <jaegermj@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
My earlier message may have been garbled. Trying again.
Peter's probably right that ATC doesn't want negative publicity, but I
think they have chosen to avoid a different type of bad publicity.
Disclosure, I spent my career working for the state Public Service
Commission and have dad many opportunities to interact with ATC. I'm not
in anyway speaking for the PSC here, that's what I happily retired from.
ATC does have an obligation to provide reliable electricity safely.
There has been a lot of pressure over the past score of years to have
utilities keep up with clearing hazard vegetation from their powerline
rights-of-ways. The Great Northeast Blackout was caused by deferred
vegetation management. Some of the big California fires the past couple of
years also started with vegetation contact with powerlines. I believe this
is the kind of bad publicity that ATC has decided to avoid.
ATC has to have an aporoved vegetation management with a federal electric
reliability group (my memory seems to point to the North American Electric
Reliability Corporation, or NERC). The impression I had was that as long
as ATC was complying with their vegetation management plan, they were off
the hook for serious fines, etc. ATC will keep pointing back to their
required plan and that they need to provide a reliable, safe system, when
questioned why they clear-cut from edge to edge.
But, there are other ways to meet the right-of-way clearing requirements,
but ATC doesn 't seem at all open to considering them. These other methods
may be more expensive, and I think ATC would rather face bad local
publicity than to face fines from the safety regulators.
You've got a tough nut to rack and ATC seems really entrenched.
-Michael John
-------- Original message --------
From: Peter McKeever <petermckeever@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 05/30/2019 11:55 AM (GMT-06:00)
To: birdmandan813@xxxxxxxxx, wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [wisb] Re: Follow up- Interurban bike trail disruption Oz county
Call ATC and get a supervisor on the line.....the last thing they want is
bad publicity. So call the local paper.
Peter McKeever
Monona
-----Original Message-----
From: wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:wisbirdn-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
]
On Behalf Of d pan
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2019 7:35 AM
To: wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [wisb] Follow up- Interurban bike trail disruption Oz county
A week has passed since I posted about the destruction of active nesting
sites along this trail by ATC (American Transmission Company). I received
lots of encouragement from many members of this list with ideas and
support-
I started by calling USFWS in Wisconsin- They referred me to the MN office
- charged with mid-west avian issues. This office suggested that the
combination of the current administration, some previous court rulings,
and
the company's (ATC) need to clear power company right-of-ways (just doing
their job) wouldn't support a lawsuit (worst case scenario) to stop them
from continuing their work clear cutting habitat during the nesting season
(referred to as incidental take by USFWS).
On a local level, I have communicated my dissatisfaction to the Ozaukee
county planning and parks and received a response that they will try to
contact our power supplier (WE Energies) in hopes of initiating contact
with
the proper ATC official to work out an understanding...........
Meanwhile, during most of this past week, brush clearing has continued, my
disappointment has grown, and more and more birds have wondered where
their
nests have gone-
Dan Panetti
S.E. Ozaukee county
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