Written by Iain Ramage
Feathers are flying in a bitter row between gamekeepers and the RSPB over
alleged raptor deaths at wind farms.
The Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) is demanding comprehensive
monitoring of turbine collision incidents.
The bird charity agrees but has accused the SGA of “trying to deflect
attention from widespread wildlife crime on grouse moors”.
A leading Highland anti-wind farm campaigner says she warned the
gamekeepers’ body years ago that it would be blamed for so-called bird
strikes at wind farms.
The SGA has revived a long running debate, hoping to address what it calls
a “blame culture” over the issue.
It is angry that grouse moors were implicated in a recent report that
concluded up to 41 out of 131 satellite-tagged eagles in Scotland may have
disappeared over 12 years.
Independent data found that sea eagles and golden eagles were among species
at greatest risk of collision with turbines.
SGA chairman Alex Hogg says his organisation has no issues with renewables,
with many estates combining sport shooting with wind and hydro schemes but
it wants monitoring codes reviewed.
“Checks are inconsistent and organised by operators themselves. There’s no
statutory duty to report bird collisions,” he said.
The SGA has expelled six of its members in five years for wildlife crime
convictions but disagrees with “a report assumption that there would be
little motive for wind companies not to report downed birds”.
Mr Hogg said the report suggested turbines could not be seen as a major
cause of missing eagles “because no final tag signals were within a
kilometre of a turbine”.
RSPB Scotland agrees that better monitoring is needed.
But a spokeswoman added: “This is another attempt by the SGA to deflect
attention away from the ongoing persecution of Scotland’s birds of prey,
crimes that continue to be widespread particularly on land managed
intensively for driven grouse shooting.”
She claimed an increasing weight of peer-reviewed scientific evidence had
shown conclusively that “deliberate illegal killing of birds of prey has a
vastly greater impact than accidental wind farm casualty”.
She alleged that the SGA “continue to ignore or dispute the findings of the
Scottish Government-commissioned study of the fate of satellite-tagged
golden eagles which clearly documented that while none were casualties of
turbine collisions, almost a third were illegally killed or disappeared in
highly suspicious circumstances”.
The SGA responded, saying: “We’ve never denied persecution exists.”
It said the “vast majority” of its members “are wholly law abiding and do
not deserve their name to be blackened by charities with an increasingly
anti-shooting agenda.”
A spokesman for Scottish Natural Heritage said some species were “prone to
colliding with turbines”.
Beauly-based anti-wind farm campaigner Lyndsey Ward warned the SGA years
ago that its members would be blamed for turbine deaths of raptors but that
her concerns “were dismissed”.
She said: “The shoddy monitoring of turbines by the wind industry is
pathetic. Struck birds will not all fall within 50m of the towers.
“If injured, they’ll crawl into undergrowth to die, never to be found, or
be removed by the predators that have learned turbines mean easy fast food
– as fox tracks show.”
According to the Scottish Government, a planning condition governing
offshore turbines “typically requests” that developers provide a monitoring
programme.
In terms of onshore wind farms, “ministers impose stringent conditions to
mitigate impacts on species and habitats where appropriate”.
A spokeswoman for SSE, which owns and operates wind farms, said: “We always
engage with stakeholders with respect to our environmental obligations –
which include long-term habitat management plans and associated bird
monitoring at our wind farms.”
Stephanie Conesa of the trade body Scottish Renewables, claimed the
planning process had “helped steer wind farm development away from the most
sensitive bird locations”.
SNH wants to hear from anyone wishing to report turbine casualties via
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