Protecting birds
As part of our commitment to the environment, we also protect our feathered friends. Please help us by reporting outages caused by birds or birds that are building nests on utility poles or substations.
SMUD’s Avian Protection hotline: 1-916-732-5657
Avian Protection Plan
Diverse bird populations reside year-round in our service territory. They are at risk of coming in direct contact with electric wires or colliding with power lines when flying. This might cause a disruption to electric service, damage equipment or start a fire.
As part of our long-term relationship with the conservation community and regulatory agencies, we developed an Avian Protection Plan (APP) to reduce bird mortality and outages. It includes:
- Training employees
- Providing alternative nest structures
- Installing perch deterrents
- Adding insulation on wires
- Installing markers to make power lines more visible to birds in flight
- Increasing space between electrical lines
Bald eagle nest camera
Two high-definition cameras 185 feet up in a large ponderosa pine captured the sights and sounds of a pair of bald eagles that nested in the tree each year.
The project was part of our 50-year license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to operate the Upper American River Project (UARP), SMUD’s hydroelectric system in the Sierra.