Statement from the Alliance to Protect Prince Edward County (APPEC) after the Environmental Review Tribunal decision yesterday, April 25.
Today the Environmental Review Tribunal issued a decision on APPEC’s motion for a stay on WPD’s proposed White Pines Wind Project. The Tribunal has upheld APPEC’s motion in part, finding that vegetation clearing will cause irreparable harm to the Blanding’s turtle. According to the Tribunal: “the Approval Holder’s vegetation clearing and site preparation activities in spring foraging habitat in the specific locations proposed for work in the Spring of 2016 will cause irreparable harm to Blanding’s turtles.”
While the Tribunal has put a stop to vegetation-clearing in the spring foraging habitat of these turtles it is silent with respect to the potential destruction of other types of habitat that are also critical to Blanding’s turtles, including their over-wintering habitat and oviposition habitat. The decision does not bode well for these turtle which as we know use many types of habitats across the White Pines project site and depend on all of them for their survival.
For this reason we are disappointed. We can only conclude that the Tribunal has an incomplete understanding of “significant habitat” and the importance of protecting all significant habitat, not merely one specific type.
The board is discussing the implications of the decision with our legal counsel and giving careful consideration to next steps. More information will follow.
Regards,
Orville Walsh
President, APPEC
– See more including a link to the ERT decision at: http://savethesouthshore.org/ert-decides-in-favour-of-appecs-stay-motion-some-reservations-statement-by-orville-walsh/#sthash.K9g05Vu6.dpuf
6 Comments
Pat Cusack
Turtles are one thing but they do not seem to care about the impact on human beings. One might expect the tribunal to have equal participation from the rural areas affected by turbines. Bernie
Wind Concerns Ontario
The grounds for appeal were very carefully constructed by the wind power industry. “[A successful appeal] was never supposed to happen,” said the lawyer for CanWEA at a court appearance in January 2014 on Ostrander Point.
Lynda
Dollars are trumping ethics as usual. It wouldn’t matter if the appeals are on behalf of bats, turtles, animals or humans, the outcomes are going to be predictably the same for all of us. Who is the enabler of giant wind turbine construction? Who signs the tribunals’ paycheques? The tribunals may not understand habitat, but it is clear they understand whos ring (amongst other things) they must kiss. I’m afraid we had better get used to it, the government and all their agencies are in it together and it’s obvious the ‘will of the people’ is not part of their mantra. If the ministry of the environment is not willing to protect the environment, why are they even receiving paycheques? Why do they even have jobs? It is very clear that McGuinty and Wynne have sounded the death knell for rural Ontarians.
Barbara
SHADES OF GREEN, Dec.9, 2013
‘Mapping environmentalism’s road ahead’
An in-depth examination of five groups that are driving the agenda in Congress and the nation.
350.org and NRDC are also involved in Canada.
CLICK ON: The chart of The Interconnected Web of Enviros
Looks something like a spiderweb.
Canada has it’s own ENGOs as well.
http://www.eenews.net/special_reports/shades_green
Sommer
Barbara, take a look at or listen to this very recent information regarding the UN Agenda 3O.
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1163-spiro-skouras-explains-the-agenda-2030-ocean-takeover/
In our case, it has been decided that the wind is a resource, so we’re swept up in this massive agenda and we must work together to reverse it.
In a few days a major breakthrough will occur regarding the rationale behind these industrial wind turbines. The climate change issue is about to be exposed.
Barbara
Well, the U.N. has far exceeded its original mandate!