The Island incudes 400 hectares of Provincially Significant |Coastal Wetlands. “To place an industrial wind factory here,” says Sherri Lange of NA-PAW, “is nothing short of astonishing, and an affront to the Canadian way of viewing and preserving natural treasures. Although NA-PAW objects to all industrial wind facilities that do nothing to provide clean or “green” sources of energy, there is something deeply delusional to think that the public will not completely revolt over yet another disaster nearby like Wolfe Island.” (The Amherst Island turbines will be 100 feet taller than those at Wolfe Island.)
MPP Randy Hillier stated in an
interview with Kingston Station 14, that the project has been ferociously opposed by the community from the “get go.” “These now 26 wind turbines will directly benefit a few individual property owners who will receive a significant and handsome, but ill-gotten gain, from these wind turbines, and all their neighbors will pay the price.”
NA-PAW indicated that the machines are now significantly taller and more menacing to bird and bat life. Mortality counts are performed by developers, sometimes carried out on their behalf by companies such as Stantec, or specialists such as ornithologist Dr. Paul Kelinger (who routinely represents wind developers around the world); but these appear to have direct interests in providing neutral or benign reports.
Jim Wiegand, a wildlife biologist from California, has studied the count areas and indicates that areas searched are routinely small radii, about 50 meters, while about 90% of bird and bat carcasses are catapulted 90% further, leaving scavenged wildlife to remain uncounted. This is not by chance, but design. Adds NA-PAW, “If the public knew the real numbers of slaughtered birds and bats, the outcry would be epic. But this news is fast undergoing a crescendo of understanding now.”
International condemnation of the project continues to mount: groups from the US, Spain, Denmark and others, have promised to sign on to Open Letters and petition the Ontario government to completely “terminate” the
Windlectric turbine project.
Protesters of the project are Save the Eagles International, other Eagle and bird protection agencies, the Great Lakes Wind Truth Groups, USA and Canada, who have successfully prevented several significant projects from entering the Great Lakes, and a significant number of other individuals and agencies who are involved in land and natural resources protection, as well as the protection of human health.
For further information, please contact:
Sherri Lange
CEO, NA-PAW, North American Platform Against Wind Power
Founding Director, Toronto Wind Action
Executive Director Canada, Great Lakes Wind Truth
VP Canada, Great Lakes Wind Truth
Michele LeLay
APAI (Association to Protect Amherst Island)