SARATOGA, Wyo. - Research at the biggest wind farm project being developed in the U.S. right now seeks to help a chicken-sized bird that within a year could be listed as a threatened or endangered species.
Developers of the Chokecherry-Sierra Madre wind farm in south-central Wyoming say they want to help their local population of greater sage grouse.
Four years of research at the site is helping decide where roads and many of the up to 1,000 turbines will go. The research includes fitting dozens of sage grouse with thumb-sized location transmitters.
Federal officials face a September 2015 deadline to decide whether to protect the bird under the Endangered Species Act.
Scientists say the study will offer the first look at sage grouse population before and after a wind farm is built.
Efforts to conserve the struggling species of grouse are having far-reaching effects on the region's energy industry.
Already sales of leases on 8.1 million acres of federal oil and gas parcels, which covers an area larger than Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined, have been put on hold because of worries about the bird. That's according to government data obtained by The Associated Press.
The leasing delays underscore just how much is at stake with next year's decision on the ground-dwelling grouse.
Its range covers portions of 11 states. Within that huge area are vast oil, gas and coal reserves and the best type of windy, open country for developing wind power.
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