It appears that the energy needs of humans may be compatible with the survival of a few tiny, endangered birds after all.

Until recently, however, it looked as though a proposed solar panel farm on pasture in Stone Mills Township near Napanee was going to push the eastern loggerhead shrike another giant step closer to extinction.

Conservationists became upset when they learned that 120 hectares of farm property considered essential to the survival of about 30 pairs of shrike would be covered in 200,000 photovoltaic panels.

The panels would capture the sun's rays and produce non-polluting electricity. But where the birds were concerned, the panels couldn't be considered environmentally friendly.

Some important lessons have been learned as this controversy unfolded.

Chief among them is that conservation spending and planning isn't as co-ordinated as it should be.

The Whig-Standard discovered that the owners of the property being sold to SkyPower Corp. and SunEdison Canada had received government funding to maintain the land as shrike habitat.

In 2002, farmers Jack and Eric Smith were given $9,670.96 to clear cedar trees and brush that were taking over the property. The Smiths were happy to oblige because it meant better pasture for their cattle.

Over the next six years, the brothers never heard whether the shrike program on their property had been successful. Apparently it had, and when conservationists heard the property had been sold for solar energy development, they alerted all parties.

Ecological consultant Chris Grooms said the Smiths were not to blame for any misunderstanding, nor were they under any obligation not to sell.

"The onus can't be on landowners to look out for the birds entirely," said Grooms, who helped administer the Eastern Loggerhead Shrike Recovery Program. "It has to come through the Ministry of Natural Resources and the municipality."

Though the solar farm will sit in the middle of the wider shrike habitat region, all sides are working toward a solution that will be environmentally sensitive in every way. The companies will try to ensure, for instance, that the panels don't encroach on shrike nests.

But the conservationists have had to fight a rearguard action.

It didn't have to be that way. The energy companies should have been informed that they were about to purchase the habitat of a protected species. And that warning could have come from either the municipal or provincial level.

The $9,670.96 paid to the Smiths isn't a lot of money. Certainly not enough to prevent them from selling their land. And probably not enough to stop an important energy project.

But it's what that money represents that's important: a means of preventing yet another species from disappearing, and a small investment in its future.

The eastern loggerhead shrike is just one species on a list of 55 mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish and plants threatened with imminent extinction or extirpation across Canada. And its ours to protect.