Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/1019591
September 2018 WINES&VINES 47 PRACTICAL WINERY & VINEYARD WINEMAKING making their crossing as high as 5,000 feet or more above the ground. The condors seek out a direct path to get from one side of the valley to the other. Condor flights tend to be lower and more frequent in the southern Salinas Valley. For example, con- dors typically fly several thousand feet above the valley floor in Gonzales and Soledad, but flights are often below 1,000 feet near King City. Per a contract with Foundation Windpower, Stake began conducting data analysis of con- dor locations to study their movement patterns at the Scheid site in 2015. The goal was to determine whether the condors fly low enough at the site to be at risk for collision. Stake fo- cused primarily on the east side of Salinas Valley, close to the foothills, where condor traffic is higher than in other areas. Ventana has been tracking condor movement since 1997, first with VHF radio transmitters attached to the birds' wings. In 2003, they began using satellite tags. Roughly one-quarter of the condor population in this area has been tagged. The tags are run by solar power to collect location fixes (GPS coordinates) and position the birds within several meters of where they are. The GPS is coordinated to the bird, and each bird is given a specific number as an identifier. The GPS com- municates with a satellite and collects the birds' locations, which are stored inside the tag. Once a condor flies near a cell tower, the data is up- loaded to a server at Ventana's office. The GPS takes into account the condors' horizontal positions relative to the satellite and their vertical positions relative to the ground. "Their vertical position is key to all of this be- cause it lets us see how high above ground the birds are flying," Stake says. Average altitude is also measured to determine potential collisions. The condors' locations are then plotted onto a Google Earth map to determine how many birds are flying close to the wind-development site. Findings from the condor study The 2015 study occurred over one month. It included 1.5 million data points on condor movement already collected in 2003 up through the end of the one-month study. The results showed that California condors, on average, are flying 1,000 feet or more over the Scheid property in Greenfield, where they tend to fly higher than they do in the southern part of the valley. "Based on our study, we did not find any birds [condors] flying within rotor tip height (maximum height that the turbine blade swings upward) at Scheid," Stake reports. Ventana's study of condors over time shows that even though today's condor populations are much bigger and more birds are flying over the Salinas Valley, they are still flying quite high, are continuing on a straight path, and do not seem to be approaching the three turbines in Salinas Valley. When the condors fly near King City and closer to the ground, biologists have become more concerned about wind- energy developments. Cynthia Bournellis is a certified California Wine Appella- tion Specialist with honors, journalist, and wine industry professional. You can read more about her journeys through wine on her blog, frombehindthetastingbar.com. To see the bibliography for this article, go to winesandvines.com and search under Magazine › Features › September 2018 "Based on current performance, we estimate electricity savings from the turbine to exceed $50,000 per year." – Tony Stephen, chief planning officer Scheid Family Wine Fill your bottle selection with... Fill your bottle selection with... a a c w i n e . c o m a a c w i n e . c o m All American Containers Local Inventor y | S uperior S election | E xper t Advice Windsor, CA • San Leandro, CA • Kalama, WA