Field Naturalists begin Ostrander Appeal Funding Drive
Administrator | Dec 31, 2012 | Comments 3
Prince Edward County Field Naturalists (PECFN) have launched an immediate fundraising drive to support an appeal against the permit for nine mammoth 2.5 megawatt industrial wind turbines to be built on the Ostrander Point Crown Land Block in the heart of the Important Bird Area of the County’s South Shore.
“With the help of County citizens and concerned Ontarians, PECFN will mount a vigorous appeal to the Environmental Review Tribunal (ERT) against the project,” says PECFN vice-president Myrna Wood. “Starting immediately, PECFN will be soliciting funds to support the appeal. County residents have shown through petitions, plebiscites and demonstrations they agree with the Field Naturalists that
Ostrander Point is the wrong place for wind turbines. Now the Field Naturalists need your help to fight the desecration of the South Shore natural habitat,” she said. “We estimate that it will cost over $100,000 to combat the Gilead project effectively at the ERT.”
Even before the campaign had been announced, potential donors had begun contacting PECFN to offer support.
“Clearly Prince Edward County residents are prepared to dig deep to defend the natural habitat that is such an integral part of this area. We look forward to bringing our case to the Environmental Review Tribunal,” Wood said.
The ERT requires that the appeal documents be submitted 15 days after approval. The timing of approval on December 20 means that the appeal documents must be submitted on January 4, 2013.
“As a result, PECFN executive members and environmental lawyer, Eric Gillespie, have been working nonstop over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period to prepare.”
Cheques should be made payable to the Ostrander Point Appeal Fund and mailed to Myrna Wood, 59 King St. unit 2, Picton K0K 2T0
Filed Under: News from Everywhere Else
I was doing some research on anthropogenic noise and animal behavior and came across a quite interesting study, “The impact of environmental noise on song amplitude in a territorial bird” by Henrik Brumm (http://roadecology.ucdavis.edu/pdflib/Winter2005/Brumm,%20Nightingales%20sing%20louder%20in%20noisy%20environments,%20JAnim.pdf). It points out a behavioral effect on songbirds of anthropogenic industrial noise. I quote from the study:
“1.The impact of environmental background noise on the performance of territorial songs was examined in free-ranging nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos Brehm). An analysis of sound pressure levels revealed that males at noisier locations sang with higher sound levels than birds in territories less affected by background sounds.
2.This is the first evidence of a noise-dependent vocal amplitude regulation in the natural
environment of an animal.
3. The results yielded demonstrate that the birds tried to mitigate the impairments on their communication caused by masking noise. This behavior may help to maintain a given transmission distance of songs, which are used in territory defence and mate attraction. At the same time, birds forced to sing with higher amplitudes have to bear the increased costs of singing.
4. This suggests that in songbirds the level of environmental noise in a territory will contribute to its quality and thus considerably affect the behavioral ecology of singing males.”
“It is known that disturbance by anthropogenic noise can influence populations of breeding birds. Many studies show evidence for a decline in both number of species and number of individuals due to increased environmental noise levels.”
Human activities have been a source of evolutionary artificial selection with many species and in almost all cases have resulted endangerment. I wonder whether the environmental consultants, Stantec, include this science in their reports?
A huge THANK-YOU to all of you who are donating their
expertise, time and $$$ to this battle ! Your good deeds are noticed, appreciated, and will be long remembered !
Please continue with your GREAT WORK !!
I will mail in my support A.S.A.P. Thanks.
Sad days in Ontario when the citizens have to raise money to protect them from the people they elected to represent them and at the same time pay their wages!
How does one spell “criminal behaviour”?…… D-A-L-T-O-N