Following on from the recent visit by UAAA members to West Browncastle Wind Farm (see previous post), we have also visited the neighbouring development known as Calder Water Wind Farm. This development is being built by the renewables company Community Wind Power. We were invited onto site by Liz Parsons of Paisley based ecological consultancy firm Starling Learning who have been employed as the Ecological Clerk of Works (ECoW) for the site. Liz, who is clearly enthusiastic about the wildlife in the area including birds such as ravens and curlews as well as larger mammals such as otters, explained some of the site monitoring procedures that they are undertaking on an ongoing basis to protect the site environment. We also had a brief tour to see of some of the works designed to re-establish and stabilise the banks of the burns and minimise the ingress of silt into the water course following some of the initial ground works that has already taken place (see photos below).
We are grateful to the Liz for taking the time to show us around and giving us an open invitation to visit to site in future to see how things are progressing. Liz and her colleague have expressed an interest in visiting our hatchery so hopefully we will return the favour in the coming weeks.
As previously stated, UAAA will continue to take a close interest in the progress of the turbine installations to try and ensure the river and fish population is not negatively impacted by these new developments.
Calder Wind Farm
Calder Wind Farm