Highland Habitat Destruction: Scots Wild About Wind Farms Wiping Out Endangered Wildcats

Wind weasels wipe wildcats from Clashindarroch Forest
(image courtesy Wildcat Haven)

For the modern eco-zealot green hypocrisy knows no limit. A generation back, eco-warriors would go to war over the slaughter of a few furry seals and the odd, lumbering whale destined for Japanese dinner tables, and would weep for days over the loss of a single oil-soaked cormorant or pelican.

These days, those that parade as protectors of the planet couldn’t care less about the critters that inhabit it (they reserve special contempt for their own bipedal contemporaries).

The pointless slaughter of millions and birds and bats is met with a shrug and millennial indifference. Provided, of course, that the assailant was in the process of lovingly caressing energy from nature’s other wonder fuel.

When we say pointless, we mean pointless. Generating power around 30% of the time, based on mother nature’s dictates, rather than the dictates of power users, means that wind power is practically worthless. Like everywhere else on the planet, in the absence of massive subsidies there wouldn’t be a single turbine, in Scotland or anywhere else. Period.

This time the object of the wind cult’s malign indifference is an endangered species of wildcat, with a shrinking refuge in the Scottish Highlands.

Their homeland is shrinking because the wind industry is hell-bent on slashing every last vestige of vegetation from Highland peaks. All to produce electricity that has no commercial value.

This mindless brand of hypocrisy hasn’t gone unnoticed, with the wildcat’s defenders mounting a spirited defence in favour of the feline’s future.

200,000 sign petition calling for north-east forest to be protected saying ‘logging will tear wildcat population apart’
Evening Express
Adele Merson
21 June 2018

Conservation group Wildcat Haven has launched an online petition over plans to build 16 new turbines at Clashindarroch, south-west of Huntly, over fears for the creatures who live in the area.

Swedish energy firm Vattenfall, which tabled the plans, already has a wind farm at the site but conservationists claim the second would see a quarter of the forest felled, destroying the animals’ territories and den sites.

The petition to the Scottish Government, which has attracted almost 200,000 signatures so far, claims there are only 35 wildcats left with at least 13 located in the Aberdeenshire forest and “in danger from logging”.

It added: “It is their last and only known major stronghold and breeding site.

“But logging is taking place in the middle of kitten season, disturbing wildcat mothers, which could make them abandon or even eat their young.

“The logging will tear the wildcat population apart.”

Camera trap image of Scottish wildcat
(image courtesy of Wildcat Haven)

Steve Piper, a wildlife filmmaker and expert wildcat conservationist who started the petition, said it’s “appalling” that the Forestry Commission are clear-felling the area.

He said: “The Highlands is full of bare hills so why do we need another wind farm on the only one with a resident wildcat population?”

A spokesman for Forest Enterprise Scotland, said the claims were “unsubstantiated and “unqualified”.

He said: “Clashindarroch is a productive forest and is managed sustainably to internationally recognised standards.

“An important part of our stewardship involves carrying out a huge range of actions to conserve wildcats and other important species such as red squirrels, woodland grouse and birds of prey.

“There are wind farm proposals for the area but, should they be progressed by the developers, any plans will be subject to the full environmental impact assessment, public consultation and planning processes.”

Alison Daugherty, Vattenfall’s project manager for the development of Clashindarroch II, said: “Vattenfall and our partners have undertaken extensive environmental studies over several years and this will continue as we prepare and invite the scrutiny of a rigorously prepared environmental impact assessment.

“What the evidence currently shows is the wildcat population in Clashindarroch Forest is unaffected by our four-year-old operational wind farm. We will propose a new scheme – Clashindarroch II – that does no harm to the existing population and, with habitat enhancement elsewhere in the forest, further protects this sensitive species.”
Evening Express

Not the only angry Native Highlander.