Upcoming April Energy Breakfast
Winneshiek County Conservation’s Lilly Jensen and Luther College professor Dawn Reding will discuss energy production’s effect on wildlife at the upcoming Winneshiek Energy District’s April Energy Breakfast. Presenters will look at the often overlooked circumstance of wildlife interaction with renewable and nonrenewable energy production. The program starts at 7:30 AM on April 19th at T-Bock’s Sports Bar and Grill.
Jensen will provide an overview of ways that certain wildlife lives alongside various methods of energy production and transmission and then suggest possible ways to mitigate those effects.
“All energy production has trade-offs,” says Jensen. “We know the dangers of fossil fuel consumption, but renewable sources of energy have some drawbacks too, particularly for wildlife and biodiversity.”
Following Jensen’s overview, Professor Dawn Reding will present her single-turbine bat research, a local research effort that studies the impacts of single-turbine facilities (such as the one at Luther College) on bat populations.
“We hope that the information we gather can tell us more about our local bat population in general and also suggest ways to decrease the number of bat fatalities at the turbine” says Reding. Reding’s research uses acoustic recordings to examine bat activity, and measures fatality by searching for carcasses under the turbine to learn more about the species at risk and the seasonal/environmental conditions that influence risk.
As Luther College’s Assistant Professor of Biology, Reding teaches Genetics, Principles of Biology labs, Genetics and Society, and Genomics at Luther College. Jensen is in her seventh year as Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Winneshiek County Conservation and holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Humanities from the University of Utah.
A breakfast buffet of quiche, fruit, yogurt, coffee and juice will be available for purchase during the program. Attendees can register at www.energydistrict.org/breakfast/ or call (563)382-4207 ext. 4 to reserve a spot at this FREE event.