E.ON U.S. Helps Increase Peregrine Falcon Population
05.25.2007


LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The world's fastest bird has pulled out of a dive toward extinction and once again is soaring thanks to conservation efforts across the United States.

In Kentucky, E.ON U.S., parent of Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, is doing its part to help increase the peregrine falcon population through the use of "nesting boxes" at several of its power plants and banding birds to track their numbers.

And, LG&E's Mill Creek Plant recently witnessed the fruits of their labor when a female peregrine in the vicinity laid four eggs in the nesting box, two of which hatched. The employees of Mill Creek have been working with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources since last year, to build a wooden platform know as a "nesting box" on the stack for Units 1 and 2. Officials from the KDFWR also banded the hatchlings for future identification.

The species isn't a stranger to E.ON U.S. power plants. In the late 1990s, KU's E.W. Brown was the first power plant to release falcons in Kentucky. In about three years, more than 20 young falcons were released from Brown. To support E.ON U.S.'s commitment to biodiversity, several E.ON U.S. plants, including Trimble County and Ghent, have provided shelter for peregrine falcons in the past, with the help of local and state wildlife agencies. Power plant stacks and cooling towers provide an ideal place for nesting boxes because the height reflects that of the birds' natural roosting sites. The boxes also allow wildlife officials to capture, band and release the birds for study.

Although peregrine falcons are no longer on the endangered species list, it's important for E.ON U.S. to continue to support the birds as they further grow their numbers," said John Voyles, Vice President of Regulated Generation for E.ON U.S. "Our nesting box initiative — now in its second decade — is another innovative way we're protecting and preserving our natural resources."

Peregrines once were considered an endangered species. But the bird's population rebounded after the chemical DDT was banned in 1962, and the peregrine has since been removed from the endangered species list.



E.ON U.S., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a subsidiary of E.ON A.G., the world's largest investor-owned energy services provider. E.ON U.S. is a diversified energy services company that owns and operates Louisville Gas and Electric Company, a regulated utility that serves 324,000 natural gas and 398,000 electric customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding counties, and Kentucky Utilities Company, a regulated electric utility in Lexington, Ky., that serves 531,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and five counties in Virginia.