A new transmission line takes flight with a plan to keep osprey nests safely grounded.

Before construction begins later this month on the 25-mile Laguna-to-Santa Rosa transmission line in Bay and Walton counties, more than 20 osprey nests are being moved to new 60-foot wooden poles nearby, complete with a nest platform.

Gulf Power is removing a 115-kV transmission line and building a new 230-kV line to maintain reliability in the Panama City area as part of the company’s largest construction plan in history.

“We are building the new line to maintain reliability,” said Jeff Rogers, Corporate Communications manager. “Ospreys have built nests on our poles across our territory. This project protects them and their nests as we build a new line.”

Osprey nests are generally found within 2-3 miles of a body of water such as lakes, bays, salt marshes, swamps, reservoirs and rivers.

Gulf Power secured the proper permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and contracted with a firm that specializes in moving osprey nests. Sixty-foot wooden poles were erected within 100 feet of the line, complete with a nest platform. The contractor then, under the guidance of environmental consultants, moved the original nests to the wooden platforms to attract the ospreys to their new home.

“We can move the nests during the non-nesting season, which is August through January,” Rogers said. “It has gone very smoothly.”

Another 4-5 nests will be moved in January.

Work on the new line is expected to be complete in early 2015.