Some opponents of lighting have expressed concern that lighting may interfere with the SW Path corridor's use by owls. It seems unlikely that the proposed lighting would have any negative impacts on nighttime use of the corridor by owls.
Owls can be very active both a little before and a little after maximum darkness. On rare occasions, it's possible that path lighting may even help owls atone for their own songbird depredations by removing inappropriately free-ranging house cats (which kill an estimated 500 million to 950 million songbirds per year in the U.S - but don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating protecting songbirds by running over cats with bikes ...): http://www.owlpages.com/news.php?article=283 At times of food shortages, they also can be seen occasionally hunting in broad daylight. Anecdotal evidence suggests they tolerate noise in areas of good prey availability, so if lighting encourages more night use by people, that too may be unlikely to discourage owls: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/02/23/v-lite/2039285/reclusive-owls-get-social-in-airport.html http://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/naturetrail/speciespages/greathornedowl.htm Jeff Schimpff Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Madison, WI 608-267-7853 Website: dnr.wi.gov Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/WIDNR "Bus, Bike, Carpool to Work for Clean Air for Kids" "Pedestrians and cyclists are the indicator species of a healthier community"
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