fish and wildlife scott flaherty. >> the prosecution of those two companies certainly sent a message to dos across the country. there is incentive to come in and work with us. >> reporter: that incentive is new permits which allow wind companies to kill a small number of golden eagles each year. >> we approach the permits as a positive step which might seem a little counter intuitive. why would audubon be okay with people giving permission to kill birds? before, it was chaos, no real regulation, no real force nosement, birds were getting killed in large numbers. now we can actually track that, hold people accountable, take steps to remedy the problem. >> reporter: with repowering and a greater understanding of bird behavior, scientists and environmental groups hope there can be more clean energy with fewer bird deaths. >>> unless you have a lot of money, buying a house in the bay area is not easy. home prices in the region have jumped more than 8% during the past 12 months. according to data from corelogic in santa clara and san francisco counties, prices have increase ed by 16%. our

scott flaherty of the u.s. wildlife service says that was a significant step. >> the prosecution of those two companies certainly sent a message to companies across the country. there is incentive there to come in and work with us. >> reporter: that incentive is a new permitting system that allows companies to kill a limited number of eagles each year. even the audubon society's michael lynes sees permits as a positive step. >> before it was sort of chaos. there was no real regulation, there was no real enforcement. and we know birds were getting killed in large numbers. now, we can actually keep track of that, we can hold people accountable, and we can take steps to remedy the problem. >> reporter: as the u.s. increases its wind power capability, scientists, including shawn smallwood, believe fewer turbines and better placement are key to protecting wildlife. >> we've learned a lot here. so it should be the number one laboratory in the country for learning what not to do wrong with wind development around the