Promiscuous Ice Fishing in the New Pickens Plan

Readers could not fail to notice the term "promiscuous ice fishing" in the "Avian and Bat Protection Plan" for T. Boone Pickens' AWA Goodhue wind project. Ice fishing is a passion in Minnesota, but I'd never before heard the term "promiscuous" attached to it. Speculation about the definition and appearance of "promiscuous ice fishing" among Minnesotans has ranged from the hilarious to the unprintable. Yesterday's blog comments by "rural55027" provide a pretty complete range of thought on the subject.


Ice fishing accommodations for humans vary from an upturned bucket for sitting to portable small houses complete with beds, kitchen and satellite television. Given the amount of clothing required to keep the average human comfortably warm while ice fishing, "promiscuous ice fishing" sounds risky.


In fairness to the Pickens Plan, it's not clear whether the consultant thinks the humans or the eagles are fishing.  It's also difficult to discern whether "promiscuous ice fishing" should be considered "natural" or not:

"...driving surveys are being carried out...two times per month from early November 2011 to early

April 2012." "Data being collected during the driving surveys includes:"

"Distribution of observed natural and man-made winter food sources (e.g. road kills, livestock carcass dump sites, unburied garbage, locations where promiscuous ice fishing are allowed and water bodies that stay open allowing access to fish and/or waterfowl)."


Terry Ingram of the Eagle Nature Foundation visited the AWA Goodhue wind project footprint last month to assess the eagle activity.  At the Belle Creek Watershed structure, Mr. Ingram observed and photographed two juvenile bald eagles standing on the ice. Perhaps theses unsupervised young eagles were engaged in "promiscuous ice fishing"?

Yesterday's blog already exposed T. Boone Pickens' concerns that bald eagles are engaging in "risky flight behavior" in an apparent attempt to thwart his wind farm desires. Perhaps the eagles are also engaged in "promiscuous ice fishing".  Who knew Minnesota could be so hot in winter?

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Pickens Plan - Rapid Response Roadkill Removal

There is a new 'Pickens Plan'.  T. Boone Pickens' AWA Goodhue industrial wind project filed an updated "Avian and Bat Protection Plan" two weeks ago. The Plan includes immediate pick-up of road kill as-well-as central reporting and disposal of carcasses. Wind project Operation and Maintenance staff will be specially trained to identify what AWA Goodhue calls "artificial" bald and golden eagle "baiting" activity. By "artificial", Pickens' Avian and Bat Protection Plan apparently means: cows giving birth out-of-doors; dead deer during deer hunting season; people throwing roadkill off the roadway; and farmers spreading dung in their fields. 

This new Pickens Plan claims that the bald eagles, and other migratory birds, have "problematic flight patterns" and engage in "risky flight behavior". The bird behavior modification plan is to put up "stationary pylons" that birds can't perch on around the "turbine clusters" to create a "barrier effect".  It sounds like some sort of wind turbine Stonehenge.

The Pickens Plan jumble of gems continues: "If fossorial mammals burrow near tower footprints,...burrows will be filled and the surrounding pad covered with gravel at least 2 inches deep..."  I guess Texas badgers, woodchucks and gophers must be feeble compared to their Minnesota cousins if 2 inches of gravel would hinder their digging.

If the carefully crafted Pickens Plan still fails to stop raptors from engaging in risky flight behavior, the Plan is to lure the birds from the proposed wind project area by making habitat somewhere else and convincing the eagles to move there. 

Is the new Pickens Plan a sign of desperation?

AWA Goodhue engaged in activity that citizens find annoying, harassing, and risky.

Bald Eagles engaged in behavior Pickens finds "problematic" and "risky" in the AWA Goodhue footprint.

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