Wintering sandhill crane exposure to wind energy development in the central and southern Great Plains, USA datasets

Numerous wind energy projects have been constructed in the central and southern Great Plains, USA, the main wintering area for midcontinent Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis). We assessed exposure of wintering Sandhill Cranes to the current distribution of wind towers in the central and southern Great Plains by estimating overlap using location data from platform transmitting terminals (PTT) collected during winters 1998–2004. Because 90% of wind towers in the region were installed 2004–2013, comparing an established distribution of wind towers (as of January 2014) with pre-construction crane (1998-2004) distribution provides an initial assessment of the midcontinent population’s exposure. Distributions of cranes and towers are provided [...]