‘A national treasure’: Wind project facing huge fine for slicing and dicing bald eagle

A wind project run by the University of Minnesota is facing a penalty of about $14,000 for allowing one of its massive blades to slice and dice a bald eagle, leaving what was described as a “national treasure” in body pieces on the ground.

It is the Eolos Wind Energy Research Field in Dakota County, Minnesota.

And the case developed only days after a bald eagle landed on a highway sign structure, appearing to monitor traffic in Minnesota.

A BALD EAGLE has been spotted posing for a Minnesota traffic camera

Seems like foreshadowing of what’s to come…

Is Minnesota about to be liberated? pic.twitter.com/ECbbD8kM3m

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 23, 2026

“Photos obtained by Fox News Digital show the moment a University of Minnesota wind turbine struck the bald eagle, dismembering it into three pieces and leaving a bloodied carcass on the floor below.

The violation notice says the university violated the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act by killing the eagles without what is called an ‘incidental take permit.’ As such, the university is facing a proposed civil penalty of $14,536 for illegally killing what one Department of the Interior official called a ‘national treasure,'” explained a report at Fox.

The project had been funded by a grant from Barack Obama. Construction came after a $7.9 million grant from the Department of Energy in 2010 under Obama.

Fox News Digital said it reviewed a violation notice from the federal government that described how the project officials knew that bird collisions were a danger. They apparently were in the process of testing a collision detection system.

The report said the eagle was found in “pieces.”

“The lower torso and tail were found by technicians first, while the head and wings were not found until over a month later,” the report said.

Fox pointed out that this killing is not the only such incident to have been reported, and fines were proposed for renewable energy company Ørsted Onshore North America for the killing of two bald eagles by its wind turbines in Nebraska and Illinois.

In that case, fines of more than $32,000 have been announced.

Doug Burgum, U.S. interior secretary, said, “When you think about the green new scam, it was pro-China, and it’s anti-American, and it’s also unaffordable and unreliable.”

He said, “America’s bald eagles are a national treasure, not collateral damage for costly wind experiments.”