Worried about Ouse wildlife
Fenland Citizen, www.fenlandcitizen.co.uk 13 May 2012
It had to happen, the last bastion of safe refuge along the Ouse Washes for many thousands of migratory birds is under attack from wind turbines.
There has been applications for nine of these machines at Manea, the applicants wish to erect the turbines on the historical flight paths and preferred feeding grounds of the local migratory swan population of some 6-7000 birds.
The sites of the proposed turbines are a stones throw away from the internationally famous Ouse Bird Reserves of the RSPB and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. Installing rotating bladed machines on such sensitive sites is, to my mind, an act of environmental vandalism against protected species of wildlife.
It is claimed the turbines are not a wind farm but more an additional farming tool and setting a precedent close to protected sites is no reason for refusal.
The height of the turbines are the same height as thousands of flying full bellied swans, which places them at great risk of blade collision, such activity will also disrupt feeding grounds.
If approval were to be given, it would open up the flood gates for future applications for larger scale wind turbine developments that would damage the ecology of the Ouse reserves forever.
JOHN STONEMAN
Cambs Environmental and Wildlife Protection
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/05/13/worried-about-ouse-wildlife/