Thanks Doc Drew, for citing the report, and also noting the background of the authors.
I believe many Golden eagles are killed in wind turbine strikes, so I took a look at one of the references for the paper, Quantifying the demographic cost of human-related mortality of a raptor population, by Hunt, et al 2017. Forty-one percent of the confirmed death causes was wind turbine strikes, next highest confirmed cause was powerline electrocution.
The study was conducted in California. Under three and a half percent of the deaths were attributed to lead poisioning, but that state is considered a model for the nation at the forefront of the lead projectile ban. The study also concluded that their turbine strike data also projected to the entire loss of all Golden eagle production in the study area, so they justified it by brushing it off, and again the Hunt paper was cited as supporting documentation for a lead ammunition ban.
I also believe there is an observable increase eagles. It seems to coincide with less summer nest observation projects, and more agenda driven literature review studies, like this subject piece. Yup, the glorious symbol doing the work of vultures.
