This mapping project was a collaboration among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and staff from the Arkansas Game and Fish and Natural Heritage Commissions. It provides general information on the potential environmental risk to species of concern and sensitive habitats from proposed wind energy projects in Arkansas. According to the Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines, environmental risks include direct impacts e.g., collisions with turbines and associated infrastructure, habitat loss or degradation from turbines and infrastructure, habitat fragmentation, displacement or behavioral changes, and indirect impacts e.g., reduced nesting and breeding densities and the social ramifications of those reductions, loss or modification of foraging habitat, loss of population vigor and overall population density, increased isolation between habitat patches, loss of habitat refugia, attraction to modified habitats, effects on behavior, physiological disturbance, and habitat unsuitability. The assigned environmental risk categories and corresponding colors presented in the map represent the Service’s estimation of the relative environmental risk to species of concern and sensitive habitats within an area. Regardless of the environmental risk associated with a particular area, wind energy developers should coordinate with the Service and other appropriate Federal and State agencies and follow the Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines to inform the siting and development of any proposed wind energy project.
