Wildlife legislation and licensing requirements can often lead to a relatively standard suite of ecological surveys being undertaken to support planning applications. However, in some cases, non-standard surveys can be very helpful in increasing confidence in the conclusions of an assessment, informing mitigation strategies and securing licences.
Between 2008 and 2012 BSG Ecology was retained as the ecological advisor to the design team of LDA Design-Hargreaves who prepared the designs for the Parkland and Public Realm areas of the Olympic Park in East London. In this interview , which is one of a series of 10 interviews, Peter describes the role BSG Ecology had in the development of the Park designs and the integration of the Olympic Park Biodiversity Action Plan objectives.
The recent autumn IEEM conference in Cardiff (7-8 November) had a theme of ‘Renewable Energy and Biodiversity Impacts’. Senior Ecologist Matt Hobbs gave a presentation on applying the BCT Guidance on surveying for bats at onshore wind farms, for which he is the lead author. The presentation introduced and set out the rationale of the guidance, as well as some of the detailed methods that it includes. More challenging issues were also tackled, such as when to collect data at height and when and how to correlate weather data to recorded bat activity, to inform wind farm curtailment schemes
A recent high court judgment (August 2012) provides an interesting judgement on the thorny issue of the legality of killing of birds and bats at wind farm sites. This is a subject that we have debated at a number of wind farm public inquiries.
BSG Ecology is exhibiting at Stand 67 of Renewable UK, Glasgow between 30th October and 1st November 2012. The conference is at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), Glasgow and will address policy, development and technical aspects of UK onshore and offshore wind energy, wave and tidal energy.
Senior Ecologist Matt Hobbs will present a talk to the IEEM Autumn Conference in Cardiff on the subject of the Bat Conservation Trust’s onshore wind farm guidance. Matt’s talk will take place on Wednesday 7 November, and is entitled “Bat Surveys for Wind Farms – Best Practice.”
BSG Ecology was delighted to receive the inaugural award for best roost mitigation project from the Bat Conservation Trust for our work at Totterdown Barns in Gloucestershire. The award not only recognises BSG’s role in delivering this project, but also that of the architect Mathewson Waters and the developer Rivar Ltd. Effective collaboration was essential to arrive at a winning design for the conversion to residential use.
This article is part of our on-going review of new research into wind farm impacts on bats. It considers a recent paper published in the journal Biological Conservation by Voigt et al. (2012) titled “The catchment area of wind farms for European bats: a plea for international regulations¹”. It makes interesting and challenging reading for those involved in wind farm development in continental Europe, and has some possible implications for future assessment of impacts on bats at wind energy installations within the UK both on-shore and off-shore.
The emerging draft of BS42020 Biodiversity – Code of Practice for Planning and Development provides opportunities for improved consistency and objectivity across all professional ecologists involved in delivering advice on ecology matters in advance of and during the planning application process. The BS will apply to those working in the public, private and voluntary sectors.
One of BSG Ecology’s current projects has seen Principal Ecologist Hannah Bilston design and implement a bat survey programme for a proposed 20 turbine wind farm in Poland.
This article provides a brief review of a recent appeal decision for a proposed seven wind turbine scheme in Northamptonshire. It also continues Dr Peter Shepherd’s review of wind farm public inquiry decisions following his recent note on the Kelmarsh and Watford Lodge wind farm appeal decisions.
Senior Ecologist Matt Hobbs will present a talk to the RenewableUK Conference in Glasgow on the subject of the Bat Conservation Trust’s onshore wind farm guidance. Matt’s talk will take place on the morning of Thursday 1 November (the Small and Medium Wind Installer Session), and is entitled “Applying the Bat Conservation Trust survey guidelines for onshore wind farms: why doing more can mean doing less.”
