Montreathmont public enquiry (2009) NB

This, strictly speaking, isn’t an essay: it is a transcript of the evidence I presented at the public enquiry into the proposal to build an industrial wind park in my local wood – the only extensive, lowland one in the county. Some of the arguments will have a resonance at other sites subject to other types of development. © Niall Benvie 2009.

PRECOGNITION BY NIALL BENVIE

I have to say that I never thought I’d be crossing swords with a renewable energy company and I’m sorry to be doing so. Nevertheless, my feeling is that this scheme is so ill-advised that I have no choice but to do so.

clarification: For clarity and the avoidance of mischievous questioning, when I refer to “Montreathmont” I mean what has been correctly referred to as “Monrumin”. In my evidence, I have avoided references to “moor” and ‘forest” as I view the whole areas as biologically continuous and as we’ve heard, amenity users generally don’t distinguish between Forestry and Estate land.

1. The sites in context.
[Mont. sunrise] Few places in Angus have escaped management over several thousand years of human settlement. Those that have resisted it and retained some degree of wildness – where the balance of power between natural and anthropogenic processes is more even– tend to be on sections of its coastline and higher reaches of the mountains on its northern flank. In this respect then, Montreathmont and Rossie Moor are anomalous; in spite of their location in the heart of productive farming country, they have retained a degree of wildness absent in the areas surrounding them. Perhaps their soils and hydrology have discouraged wholesale conversion to farmland, perhaps historically they were valued as refuges for game and therefore spared the plough. Whatever the reason they still exist in their semi-natural states, Montreathmont and Rossie today stand as refuges in lowland Angus not only for wildlife but for people craving solitude or a retreat from the intensity and bustle of urban life.[aye, you even get this in Brechin]

2. Principal objections. [Blacklaw windfarm and trees]
2.1. Change of site character. Conversion of use of these sites from forest and moor land to industrial, power generating units would irreversible alter their character and strip of them the qualities they currently possess as refuges. Regardless of the arguments concerning blade flicker and noise, the mere presence of these huge towers and all the displacement they require, would cause an irreversible – and I believe, highly negative – impact on the sites.{turbines and peat hags] No amount of photographic obfuscation can conceal the fact that the 126m high windmills proposed for Montreathmont, while expressing massive good intent, ultimately represent monumentally poor vision about how we should produce and use energy.

[turbine at dusk]2.2. Inappropriate siting on account of low wind speeds [with reference to Montreathmont]. An informed commentator has revealed that the topology (should read topography)_, aspect and elevation of the site mitigate against a favourable wind regime to the extent that the site’s productivity may be as little as a third of what could be expected in a more appropriate location. It is therefore disingenuous of the developer to claim the site is suitable on the basis of its generation potential when in fact it is only fiscal support that makes the consideration of such a site possible in the first place.

2.3.[ Emperor moth] A superficial and incomplete wildlife survey. It is common today for expert witnesses who write environmental impact assessments to spend considerably more time collating inadequate data on their computers than in the field actually observing and recording. And with that essential link to the natural world broken, things go unnoticed and connections fail to be made. Section 7 of the Developer’s report reads as just such an exercise. [Chanterelle]

My own professional background as a wildlife photographer and writer has, of necessity, required me to spend long hours in the field and during the time I was making the pictures for my book on red squirrels , a good deal of that was in Montreathmont. Over the years, I have spent hundreds of additional hours in the forest, photographing and just watching what goes on. [polytrichum] It is a hard place to get to know well: perhaps this is why the surveyors completely failed to meet up with the numerous parties of crossbills that roam the forest canopy. The taxonomy of crossbills is under constant review: three species, the Scottish, common and parrot all occur in pine woods in the eastern highlands and display marked overlap in range and genetic traits. The Scottish crossbill is a SPEC1 (Species of European Conservation Concern) species of Global Conservation Concern and while the taxonomy of the birds that live in Montreathmont is uncertain, the precautionary principle should apply and any threats to their habitat or free movement around the site, be removed. [iona] The fact that a considerable amount of logging has already occurred should be viewed as an even stronger reason to prevent further erosion of the crossbill’s habitat rather than an excuse to cause more.

[caper] The crossbill is just one example of species unacknowledged in the survey. The surveyor could not, of course, have known that great grey shrikes, exotic winter visitors from the contintent, have been seen in the forest; that harriers have taken a look for potential nesting sites; or that, largely through neglectful management, the capercaillies I used to wait overnight in a canvas hide in April to see display, have probably died out. Montreathmont – and Rossie too – are large and wild enough to act as a redoubt for creatures in an otherwise, often hostile, agricultural environment, creatures that can go unseen for years.

[understorey] 2.4. Undeliverable promises of mitigation. Promises of mitigation measures to enable wild creature to co-exist with the development may reflect a willingness to do the right thing but fail to acknowledge the high failure rate of such schemes, ignoring as they do the complexity of forest ecology. Merely planting trees, for example, does not create a forest any more than building a house creates a home: in the absence of a natural understorey of herbs the forest lacks a vital contributor to its ecological integrity. And that herb layer, currently present in many parts of the forest, cannot easily be restored once it is destroyed. In the course of my work, I have photographed one of the largest wind farms in central Scotland as well as the sixty-eight 70 m high turbines on the Norwegian island of Smøla, [golden plover] and it is clear that no amount of mitigation changes the fact that large turbines fundamentally alter the character of a place, with unimagined impacts on its wildlife. The significance of turbines as deterrents to wildlife does require long-term study but physical collision is a proven reality: so far, more than ten white tailed eagles are known to have been killed in collisions with turbines on [sea eagle one]Smøla. The majority have been immature birds. Indeed, during my work there I saw and photographed eagles pass close to revolving turbines blades on several occasions. [sea eagle two] At the very time public money is contributing to the re-establishment of this species in both eastern and western Scotland (with, incidentally, young birds), it seems ill-advised to place a proven hazard within territory already known (through observation of released birds) to be favoured by the sea eagles.

[dead squirrel]2.5. The significance of Montreathmont as a red squirrel refuge. The late 20th C decline of red squirrels throughout their UK range has been well documented and the reasons are generally agreed upon. These relate, in mixed woodland, to competition with grey squirrels over food, particularly hazelnuts; the fragmentation of boreal forest and the introduction of broadleaved species that provide food and improved habitat for grey squirrels; and, the emergence of squirrel pox virus, transmitted by grey squirrels which are themselves immune. During the last 10 years, the incidence of grey squirrels in northern Angus has increased significantly as the species expands its range eastwards, from Perthshire. Many of the red squirrels in northern Angus continue to thrive in broad-leaved woodland (eg, in the policies of The Burn House, Edzell) but they are likely to be displaced as numbers of grey squirrels rise. I witnessed this happen between 1994 and 2004 at Ballathie, Perthshire. [ red squirrel 2]The red squirrel is more of an arboreal feeder than the grey, which is happier foraging on the ground and is too heavy to access pine cones at the end of slender branches. In pine and spruce forest, therefore, red squirrels will continue to hold a competitive advantage and such areas with extant populations of red squirrels deserve the highest level of protection, if for no other reason, than to save the public purse the cost of expensive re-establishment programmes in the future. [red squirrel 3] Montreathmont is one such forest as regular visitors to it can testify (although few are systematic in recording their observations) The red squirrel is a Category One Species for Conservation Action and although politically expedient, it is disappointing that the statutory body responsible for framing this strategy, SNH, is unwilling to act in defence of this important site. Already a viable breeding population of capercaillie, a SPEC 3 (Unfavourable conservation status [vulnerable]) – an iconic Scottish bird – has almost certainly been lost to the forest through the lack of a systematic management strategy.

[Angus and dogs] 2.6. Loss of amenity. “Amenity” is used in this context to refer to the effects on people rather than on wildlife should these sites become industrialised, and the comments apply both to Montreathmont and Rossie. As a way to understand why amenity has a real value and is not a frivolous social add-on, consider where, at the end of this long, trying day of listening to evidence and exercising tremendous self-restraint, you would rather go to relax: an operational power station or a quiet forest? Where is it easier to regain an equilibrium and perspective, to feel peaceful again? Writer Richard Louv has coined the term “nature deficit disorder” to describe a range of symptoms in children which result from their loss of connection with the natural world, often manifest as behavioural and social difficulties . [Bell heather] But the psychological benefits of spending time in green space – and harm caused by denying access to wildness – pertain equally to adults, a fact gaining recognition amongst health care professionals, forest managers and psychologists . In other parts of the UK, environmental groups including Natural England, local authorities and the NHS are cooperating to formulate Green Infrastructure strategies. Amongst the standards proposed are that “There should be one [natural greenspace] accessible 100 ha site within 5km [of population centres]” and “…one accessible 500 ha site within 10 km”, standards that may be hard to meet in some parts of the south but which Angus can meet or even exceed. But that can’t be achieved if two of the most valuable extensive green spaces in the lowlands of the county – Montreathmont and Rossie – are viewed merely as land available for economic development. [tower and plane] We have already established that it is impossible to maintain the sense of separation these sites currently offer visitors if they are changed from “green” to “grey” spaces. Development supporters who claim that a new road network will only improve their enjoyment of the forest by improving access have clearly never experienced the restorative effects of green space free of the hubris of contemporary life and are arguably the poorer for it.

Montreathmont and Rossie have the potential to deliver a much higher degree of social benefit to local communities in their present form than as industrial sites. [Iona’s hand] While economic benefits may be quantified (reliably or otherwise), it is simplistic to dismiss the intangible social ones simply because a price can’t be put on them. That line of reasoning should then make us wonder why we have children and friends and pets since they all take up time and money without any pecuniary benefit. Our relationship with the green spaces that deliver not only “environmental” services but also provide us with quiet and perspective deserve to be recognised as vital contributors to our social capital and personal well-being.

Both sites are close to towns and as such are accessible to anyone with a bicycle. In a landscape heavily and conspicuously managed by people already, they are needed as a foil to “progress” and “development”, a reference point where we can observe natural process in action and measure our own achievements {Brechin]. The new Curriculum for Excellence in is laying much greater emphasis on outdoor and environmental education than was previously the case in Angus schools (I have first hand experience of the system in this area from the 1970’s to early 1980’s) but the real lessons occur in the field, in accessible, unstructured green spaces that children can easily revisit with friends or parents. Ultimately, people need the trees more than they need turbines.