The post below was taken from our Facebook page (with the kind permission of the author). It is a heartfelt response written by a professional to a blog (30 April 2020) on the Scottish Renewables website which can be read here  

Enjoy! and thank you Andrew Chadderton.

Utter tosh! I am an outdoor instructor – which includes being a deer manager and manager trainer – including instructing the Deer Stalking Certificate and being an Approved Witness for the DSC level two practical assessment. I work with an Approved Training Provider for CNPA and clients include the military and many ‘conservation’ NGO’s. In relation to the Clashgour area, I reside in that forestry block and have been ‘on the ground’ pushing 25 years in all. That’s not a few hours here and there, but day and night, day after day. Being part of the deer management there, for years now we’ve had to coordinate with the myriad of surveyors that have come out from Entymologists, through Peat Prodders to the bird surveyors.
We ‘ve seen bat surveys conducted in driving rain and gales. I ‘ve chatted ( all friendly ) across the bonnet of my truck with the bat folk – being told there were none – whilst glancing at some mighty high altitude mouse droppings on my polished windscreen… ie it was bat poop!
I ‘ve spent countless hours sat in heather watching Red Throated divers on remote lochans – to later read how ‘clever’ design of turbine siting will mean their flight lines to Findhorn are completely safe – even when a few hundred more turbines get piled on… tosh.
I’ ve read Berry Burn boasts of special Hen Harrier conservation – yet the Harriers I saw daily over the adjacent Clashgour were gone within a year of building starting… not so say the paid surveyors.
I see RSPB lodge concern of Harrier strike at proposed Clashgour – citing a proven strike at another development…. only to be fobbed off by a letter promising longer/shorter/wider and simultaneous narrower heather will create the best Harrier environment ever and in Disneyesk scenes all the fluffy creatures will skip happily… maybe not those exact words, but I feel you get my drift 😉.
And it is already rolling – for Clashgour the felling is advanced – no sanctuaries, no corridors, just headlong rush to maximise share of massive money. Its all ok because a surveyor there five times for 6 hours saw little. The stalker on the ground before dawn and through till after dusk, moving stealthily or hidden still has seen the otter, the wild cat, weasle, squirrel, fox, crossbill and more. Those are already fast vanishing from the area.
But its ok, because the developers talk of ‘improving’ the landscape – and folk who frankly haven’t a clue and really do not want to know then decide it is all ok.

Next time Packham is screaming outrage on the newsprint front page over a unproven mysterious raptor disappearrance… just ask why oh why is the silence just so deafening for the carnage being wrought by turbines; justified on the thinnest pretext.
Do I sound annoyed? Perhaps everyone should be?

Andrew Chadderton

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