Keeping bald eagles soaring
Few environmental scenes compare to the sight of majestic bald eagles flying overhead.
Just ask residents living in the Rush Township, Schuylkill County, area where a family of eagles was spotted nesting in 2020.
Those birds – and others like them – are getting special treatment thanks to some new protections we added to distribution lines near the nest.
An environmental initiative was put into motion when someone from the area spotted the eagles in the nest and notified a state lawmaker, who contacted us. That led to several discussions and collaboration to come up with a plan that needed to be executed during a time outside the birds’ nesting period.
One of our line crews put the finishing touches on this project during a frigid December morning.
The crew replaced wooden arms with fiberglass arms, switched out insulators, and added protective wire guarding on power lines near the large nest. All of those upgrades were put in place to help reduce the risk of the birds coming into contact with the power lines.
“PPL developing a way to work with the eagles rather than simply trying to make them ‘go away’ shows their commitment to bald eagles and wildlife in general,” said Pennsylvania Game Commission wildlife biologist Patti Barber. “This is an example of how people and wildlife coexist successfully and should be the goal for us all.”