Eagle owls die there, as do storks and many thousands of other birds: Year after year, birds suffer electrocution on high-voltage lines and pylons. There is a security technique, but it is not usable. Conservationists and network operators want to change that.
Renningen (dpa / lsw) - In order to prevent the mass death of birds on power lines, the masts must be further secured against earth and short circuits from the point of view of nature conservationists. Hundreds of thousands of birds risk electrocution when resting on medium-voltage lines, warned the Baden-Württemberg state chairman of the German Nature Conservation Union (Nabu), Johannes Enssle. Above all, large birds such as storks, birds of prey or owls use the masts of the overhead lines to sit, sleep or as breeding grounds. "But they run the risk of bridging the insulators of the lines or short-circuiting the lines," said Enssle.
Although network operators have already taken protective measures, these are often not sufficient. In order to further reduce the risk and to better protect birds throughout Baden-Württemberg, the State Ministry for the Environment, Nabu, the Association for Energy and Water Management (VfEW) and several network operators have joined forces. Their goal: In three phases, especially dangerous mast types are to be retrofitted.
A corresponding agreement is to be signed on Thursday (9.30 a.m.) in Renningen (Boeblingen district) – befitting an already retrofitted power pole.
According to a study commissioned by Nabu and using data from bird protection associations, white storks and common buzzards die most frequently in Germany from electric shocks - despite an obligation to defuse dangerous pylons. Eastern European imperial eagles and saker falcons are even threatened by unsecured power poles, it said when the study was published at the end of June. According to the Nabu, collisions with power lines killed a particularly large number of swans and other waterfowl and large birds.
The Federal Nature Conservation Act already stipulates that masts for medium-voltage lines must be retrofitted. However, no deadline is specified, and previous upgrades have proven to be useless for many electricity pylons.
With the new Baden-Württemberg agreement, however, only around 70 percent of the network with its more than 60,000 kilometers of medium-voltage lines is covered by the operators involved.
In addition, protection against electrocution is likely to take a long time: In the first of the three phases, a period of five years is specified in order to first inspect particularly problematic pylons and, for example, to make them safer with special covers. Bird protection markings on the lines can also make them visible to the animals. This could prevent a large part of the particularly numerous collisions, as the Nabu announced.
The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Sweden are among the pioneers in bird protection. Underground cables are used there. "That's definitely the best solution," says Nabu country boss Enssle. "It's expensive, but it's the trend, especially for new buildings."
There are no exact numbers about the dead birds - including storks, red kites and eagle owls. The number of unreported cases is enormous, said Enssle. "Most victims of electrocution fall off the pole and, if not already electrocuted, are seriously or fatally injured by the fall." In the latest Nabu study, conservationists assume that at least 1.5 million birds are killed on pylons and lines every year.
