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In Hungary, Demasz (EDF Group entity) maps the areas of its network that are most dangerous to birds and, between now and 2020, will be deploying a system that will enable 97% of birds in at-risk areas to be saved.
In the Alsace region, Électricité de Strasbourg participate in many initiatives for the preservation of the White Stork.
A couple of white storks in Alsace region.
Portrait
The White Stork, a familiar sight on Alsatian rooftops, is a large wading bird much revered and liked by the local populations: pairs mating for life, symbol of fertility, harbinger of seasonal change or messenger of a new birth if it flies above your home. Yet, the best known among the seven remaining species of the genus Ciconia (its cousin, the Black Stork is more timid and slightly smaller a cousin) is also an opportunistic carnivorous bird feeding on any small dead or live animals chancing across the path of its long red bill: shrews, voles, frogs, earthworms, insects, fish and even moles. The White Stork is a migratory species: it winters in Africa and returns to Europe in spring for the breeding period, where it re-occupies the same nest each year.
Threats
While the White Stork headcount has always remained stable in Eastern Europe, and has even grown over the past decade, its population in Western Europe had drastically declined from the 1930s to the 1980s. In some countries like France, Switzerland, Netherlands, German or Denmark, the species actually came close to extinction, and numbered only 9 breeding pairs in France by 1974. These demographic variations are linked to several factors, sometimes difficult to quantify. One of these factors involves the different migratory routes used by the eastern and western stork populations. Storks from Poland (45,000 pairs) or Ukraine (26 to 32,000 pairs) migrate to eastern Africa and South Africa following a rainy front that supplies abundant feeding stocks, while western storks from Spain (16,000 pairs) or France (600 pairs) migrate to western Africa which suffered a severe drought in the 1980s. These climate hazards are compounded by risks of collisions with overhead power lines, injuries or poisoning when the birds land in waste dumps to forage for food (ingestion of plastics is among the major causes of mortality in Europe), along with risks of electrocution, fire or fall of nests for those installed on power poles. In Africa and particularly in Mali, the storks may be poisoned by the high doses of pesticides used for locust control. Today, thanks to the re-introduction of zoo-reared birds into the wild and to migrations of wild breeding pairs from Spain, the French White Stork population has been revitalised and has even expanded beyond Alsace to settle in other regions, such as Franche-Comté, Normandy or more recently Charente-Maritime.
What is Électricité de Strasbourg doing?
In order to remedy the hazards linked to power lines and poles, the engineering department at Électricité de Strasbourg works jointly with interested municipalities and local associations to install basket-shaped nesting platforms at the top of poles to raise the nests above the level of low voltage lines, stabilise them and prevent their fall. Costs are shared 50/50, with the technical equipment paid by the requesting municipality or association (approximately €700), while Électricité de Strasbourg provides the installation at its own cost, based on two to six nesting platforms each years. The company also contributes to bird tagging campaigns carried out by the association SOS Cigognes, by lending a hydraulic manlift and seconding two operators during a once-a year two-day tagging operation that is fully paid by Électricité de Strasbourg. The tags enable tracking of the birds and the compilation of a bank of data on the living conditions of the species (total bird counts, longevity, migratory routes, mortality rates, etc). As a bonus, the manlift operators involved gain a better insight and awareness on the life and physiological characteristics of the White Storks.