“Request for guidance on avian compensatory mitigation and voluntary conservation offsets for offshore wind – AMBC Marine Spatial Planning Working Group

On August 31st 2023, members of the AMBC Marine Spatial Planning Group sent a letter to leaders and staff at the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), requesting guidance on the mitigation of expected impacts to birds from offshore wind energy development. The letter recommends that USFWS and BOEM convene a stakeholder workshop in 2023 to develop a framework on achieving net gain strategies for marine birds. Suggested topics include mandatory compensatory mitigation and voluntary conservation offsets. Two landmark documents generated the immediate need for such a framework, which were released in May 2023 by BOEM and the USFWS:

• BOEM’s Ocean Wind 1 Offshore Wind Farm Final Environmental Impact Statement (BOEM 2023), which set the first precedent requiring offsets for take of listed birds from a U.S. offshore wind energy project.
• USFWS’s final Endangered Species Act Compensatory Mitigation Policy (ESA-CMP) .

Input provided is based on over a year of discussion among AMBC members and other stakeholders, including the following targeted forums: 1) a side meeting at the State of the Science Workshop on Wildlife and Offshore Wind Energy sponsored by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in Tarrytown, NY (July 2022) and a meeting of the AMBC held jointly with the Roseate Tern Recovery Team (December 2022). The letter represents comments from members affiliated with 32 organizations), who work at federal and state agencies, as well as nongovernmental organizations, including academia, nonprofits, and industry.

Contacts: Holly Goyert (holly.goyert@briwildlife.com)

Read the letter to BOEM from the AMBC Marine Spatial Planning Group.