A new research partnership led by Boise State University is taking flight to solve one of today’s most complex conservation challenges: protecting golden eagles in wind energy landscapes.
Funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the project unites Boise State with Conservation Science Global and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to better understand how renewable energy development impacts golden eagle populations across California’s Altamont Pass and Tehachapi wind resource areas. California’s Altamont Pass is a windy mountain pass in the East Bay, between Livermore and Tracy.
While wind energy supports global climate goals, it also presents an ecological paradox, its turbines are responsible for significant eagle mortality. Researchers hope this collaboration will change that balance.
“This award moves beyond documenting a problem, it equips us with the science to solve it,” said Stephanie Hudon, Boise State public health clinical program director and research associate professor in neuroscience. “It’s an example of how collaborative, interdisciplinary research can guide renewable energy development that supports both climate goals and wildlife conservation.”
A feather’s evidence
Boise State’s role in the project centers on genetics. The team will build capacity to analyze DNA from more than 12,000 naturally shed golden eagle feathers, collected over the last decade by field biologists. These genetic samples will help researchers identify individual eagles, track their survival over time, and estimate population turnover across wind energy sites.
“This work allows us to reconstruct the life histories of individual birds,” said Hudon. “By identifying which eagles are surviving, dispersing, or returning, we can produce the most comprehensive demographic portrait of this species ever created.”
Stephanie Galla, assistant professor of avian biology and expert in conservation genetics, will co-lead the bioinformatic portion of the project. Her lab specializes in using genetic markers to understand diversity and relatedness among wildlife populations.
“DNA from feathers provides researchers with a noninvasive way to tell the story of these birds,” said Galla. “Through this grant, our institution can build important capacity in generating not just genetic, but genomic profiles of golden eagles. Beyond Altamont Pass, these approaches may also be helpful to our growing genomic research in golden eagle populations locally and within the Raptor Research Center at Boise State.”.”
The partnership between Boise State, USGS—including Co-PIs Todd Katzner and David Weins)—and Conservation Science Global—including Co-PI Tricia Miller—builds on years of shared research and data collection. Additional collaborators for this work include Doug Bell with East Bay Regional Park District, independent contractor Silas Bergen, Peter Bloom with Bloom Biological, Inc., Tara Conkling and Patrick Kolar with USGS, Adam Duerr with Conservation Science Global, and Michael Kuehn with AECOM. Together, this team will integrate genetic findings with GPS telemetry, weather data, and turbine maps to improve collision-risk models and guide smarter energy planning.
“By producing validated risk maps and demographic models, we can give state and federal agencies the tools they need to plan for coexistence rather than conflict,” said Hudon. “Our ultimate goal is to support both renewable energy development and wildlife protection.”
Hands-on conservation research experience for students
The project also creates new research opportunities for Boise State students. Graduate and undergraduate researchers will gain hands-on experience in conservation genomics, wildlife forensics, and applied environmental science, skills that prepare them for leadership in conservation and ecology.
“This work perfectly embodies Boise State’s Blue Turf Thinking,” Hudon said. “We’re crossing traditional boundaries between genetics, ecology, and engineering to address a global conservation issue. And we’re doing it while training the next generation of scientists to lead this work.”
By the conclusion of the grant, the broader grant team expects to deliver detailed demographic data for golden eagles, along with high-resolution collision-risk maps that can guide proactive turbine siting and operation.
This project also lays the groundwork for broader efforts, including the development of long-term genetic monitoring networks for raptors across the western United States and potential applications for other species with long-term feather collections.
“The Raptor Research Center at Boise State University and the USGS have been collecting genetic samples for decades in many different birds of prey,” Galla said. “The ability to generate genomic profiles in these birds, even with low quantity DNA samples like feathers, would allow for great scientific questions to be asked.”
Looking ahead, the Boise State researchers envision a future where wildlife and renewable energy can truly coexist. For Boise State researchers, the project represents years of persistence and partnership coming full circle.
“The data for this study have been gathered one feather at a time, over a decade,” Hudon said. “Now, all those small moments of fieldwork are converging into something that can truly change how we think about conservation and climate solutions.”