Project Swan Safe

by John Acklen, Project Manager

On Monday, August 9, construction crews completed the road cut across Kirner Road and utility crews began installing conduit through which power line conductors and WAVE cable would subsequently be pulled. By the end of Tuesday, the trench had been cut along the west side to the corner of Kirner and Woodcock, remaining conduit installed, and the excavation backfilled. About 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 11 Clallam County PUD switched electric power flow from the overhead lines on the east side of Kirner Road to new buried conductors. Later that afternoon they removed the de-energized lines, which had caused injury and death to swans. These acts achieved a major goal of Project Swan Safe, organized by the Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society (OPAS). Granted, the project is not quite done. Today, the WAVE broadband cable still hangs from an unneeded power pole but these vestiges will soon be removed. Final billing and accounting remain to be completed. The underground lines now provide full service to users and the threat to swans from these overhead power lines is gone.

*The lines across the west end of Kirner Pond are GONE! Once WAVE places their cable in conduit, the lower line will be removed along with a couple of the old poles.— Photo: John Acklen*

This threat became well known in the last several years, with at least nine mortalities reported to Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) since 2014. The number of mortalities alone did not tell the complete story. It was not until the winter of 2017-2018 that the true scope and scale of the problem became clear through efforts of Bob Phreaner who showed up before dawn most winter mornings, from early November through late January, to observe and record swans leaving the pond to forage in the area. Bob started photographing swans roosting on Kirner Pond in 2017 and began discerning some patterns, such as their tendency to take off into the wind regardless of the threat of the power lines. In December of 2019, he began to make daily video recordings.

*Trumpeter Swans roosting on Kirner Pond.—Photo: Bob Phreaner*

Bob Phreaner recorded all west bound take offs from early November of 2020 for 89 mornings until early February when the swans moved their roosting location to Gierin Slough (Graysmarsh). The most interesting result of reviewing the videos in slow motion was seeing the number of line strikes where a bouncing wire provided evidence that a wing had clipped a wire. Often birds would strike the line and limp off or even fly off, only to die later from their injuries. Before the videos, we only knew about the dead or injured swans found near the power lines.

*Trumpeter Swans flying over power lines on Kirner Road.—Photo: John Gussman*

On December 9, 2020 on a drizzly 39 degree overcast dawn with little wind, there were 112 swans present, roosting on Kirner Pond before dawn. At 08:30 a.m., in one of the last flights to take off, a group of 5 headed west but one swan was electrocuted. Bob called Shelly Ament of WDFW who arrived soon thereafter to pick up the dead swan. The following day, Shelly, Bob, Mike Hill, and a PUD crew met at Kirner Rd and placed 50 additional diverters; but all agreed after reviewing Bob’s video of the electrocution that diverters were not the solution. The lines needed to be buried.

*Shelly Ament holding electrocuted swan.—Photo: Bob Phreaner*

Martha Jordan of Northwest Swan Conservation Association, notified local award-winning videographer, John Gussman, of the problem and he flew his drone camera over Kirner Pond for five mornings starting on December 11, 2020. Using this footage, John made the Sudden Impact video in which he included some of Bob’s collision videos.

Bob Phreaner shared his data with the OPAS Conservation Committee in early January and the committee immediately agreed to recommend raising funds to bury the Kirner Road power lines to the OPAS Board. This was a first for OPAS as they’d never sponsored a GoFundMe campaign before. It was also in January that I offered to help with the project as I had recently retired from the utility industry as an environmental professional with a specialty in avian protection. Thus, Project Swan Safe was born. In April 2021, just 3 months after beginning fundraising, Project Swan Safe had raised the estimated $65,000 to bury the underground the power lines!

The successful completion of Project Swan Safe is a unique accomplishment, not only for OPAS, but for our community and our coalition of dedicated project partners. In my experience as a utility environmental professional, utilities usually undertake projects such as this primarily to either reduce liability or increase reliability. Funds are rarely obligated to mitigate collision risk to wildlife. This is especially true for a public utility like our PUD where every project is paid for directly by rate payers. To have PUD come up with all the funding for this project would have been extremely difficult. The real catalyst and major backing for this project are our donors. More than 290 of you, contributed to the Swan Safe GoFundMe campaign to make it go. You are the heroes in this story. Our heartfelt thanks.

Along with donor funding, other private and public entities contributed to the success of this project. PUD stepped up and contributed not only partial construction funding but project design services and management as well. Mike Hill, PUD Engineering Manager, followed through on every facet of this project from initially hanging bird diverters through the design of the underground system, obtaining easements and permits, to scheduling. WDFW provided regulatory backing, support, and, perhaps even more importantly, Shelly Ament’s time and energy as a key project proponent, partner, and problem solver. Clallam County Roads engineers permitted us to open cut the road, rather than have to use a much more expensive boring operation. C&J, our excavation contractor, went above and beyond, not only reducing their administrative burden on the project, but coordinating with the irrigation ditch company and landowners to offer innovative solutions to sticky issues that threatened project design and schedule. WAVE Broadband reduced earlier project estimates, helping us to bring the project in on budget. This public-private-non-profit coalition is unique and may be the first of its kind. It certainly is in my experience.

Although the dust has yet to settle, this project appears to have come in on budget and within the critical summer scheduling window when the swans are still on their northern nesting grounds. This winter, it will be a joy to watch swans flying into and leaving Kirner Pond without having to run the gauntlet of lethal power lines. Thanks to our innovative community coalition, the power lines are gone!