Falcons considered at wind farm inquiry
The welfare of the threatened New Zealand falcon yesterday flew onto the radar of commissioners at the Environment Court hearing into the $2 billion Project Hayes wind farm.
Ornithologist Dr Richard Seaton, a witness for Meridian Energy, told the Environment Court hearing in Queenstown there were at least three nesting pairs of the falcon living on the land earmarked for the 276-turbine Lammermoor Range wind farm.
About three more pairs, of the estimated 3000 to 5000 birds remaining in New Zealand, were also thought to be living on the designated land, he said.
The birds, deemed to be a threatened species, spent about 20 per cent of their time flying in the stratus where turbine rotors would be moving, he said.
Under cross-examination, Dr Seaton said it was hard to tell how significantly the population of falcons would be affected, without actually building the wind farm to find out.
He said Meridian could comply with consent conditions requiring ‘‘collision mortality’’ to be monitored by tagging the falcons with transmitters once they reached about 55 days old.
Judge Jon Jackson suggested nests would need to be monitored while chicks were growing, but Dr Seaton suggested the birds could instead be tagged with smaller transmitters when younger than 55 days.
Earlier, Lammermoor Station farmer John Elliot told commissioners he could think of no detrimental effects that would arise from having Meridian’s wind turbines on his land.
The owner of 5200ha above the Paerau Valley, Mr Elliot said 75 to 80 per cent of his land would be occupied by 68 turbines if the wind farm was built.
He said the rental income provided by Meridian would allow the farm to be developed, while the community would benefit from increased jobs and schooling opportunities.
The hearing continues today.
By Will Hine
The Southland Times
27 January 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
Some possibly related stories:
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
