LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]


Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

Energy giant's survey inadequate, says naturalist 

Energy giants wanting to string massive pylons through a Highland bird sanctuary based their homework on “scant information,” according to a leading naturalist.

Sir John Lister-Kaye, director of the Aigas field centre at Strathglass, yesterday told the public inquiry into Scottish and Southern Energy’s planned Beauly-Denny transmission line upgrade he was “dismayed” the company had failed to tap into an environmental databank he and his staff had spent 30 years collating.

Pointing to a significantly different account of bird flight-paths, the author said the only logical conclusion he could come to was that “the applicants’ survey was inadequate”.

And he said the results suggested the 30 ecologists hired by SSE were “maybe in the wrong place at the wrong time”.

Ailsa Wilson, the advocate acting for the developers, said: “So far as the ecologists in this project are concerned, over a three-year period they’ve carried out hundreds of hours of observations around Ruttle Wood.

“It’s not as though they have sat in their office at a desk, coming to opinions. They have been heavily involved in field survey work to inform the assessment that they carried out.”

Sir John said that, according to his 22 staff, SSE’s hired experts were rarely seen.

“Over the period you refer to we came across Colin Crooke of Highland Ornithology (Ltd), sitting in his observation positions on many occasions. We never came across any of your team,” he said.

“That isn’t to say they weren’t there and that they didn’t do the work, although of course it raises a doubt in our minds.

“And so, when I saw the precognitions come through from the applicants and I saw the very stark differential between the osprey flight patterns on your precognitions and those cited by Highland Ornithology, all my alarm bells rang.”

He added: “With the greatest of respect, my local evidence – had it been asked – would have been well able to shore up your observers’ scant information.”

The Aigas field centre near Beauly, which attracts local schoolchildren and hundreds of adults each year, is home to many rare and protected species including the honey buzzard.

It could be affected by 11 towers each 165ft tall.

Local objectors insist the new line is put under ground between Balblair sub-station and Wester Eskadale but SSE claim it would be prohibitively expensive. The inquiry continues.

The Press and Journal

7 June 2007

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon