Wind and Wildlife by Cindy Hull Emma Bennett Elizabeth Stark Ian Smales Jenny Lau & Mark Venosta

Author:Cindy Hull, Emma Bennett, Elizabeth Stark, Ian Smales, Jenny Lau & Mark Venosta
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Netherlands, Dordrecht

Keywords

Biodiversity offsetsProject planningCollision risk modelWind farmNew Zealand

Introduction

Wind farms have long been considered detrimental to birds, although the majority of the evidence for this assumption comes from some of the early designs, such as Altamont Pass (Erickson et al. 2005; Smales 2006; Powlesland 2009; Smales 2013), where multiple rows of small turbines were erected. Improved design including the use of larger turbines at greater spacing has markedly reduced bird deaths (Drewitt and Langston 2006). However, where wind farms are sited in core habitat or migratory pathways, a small number of species still appear to be at risk of collision mortality (Kingsley and Whittam 2005; Drewitt and Langston 2006). There are few available reports on bird deaths at the small number of operational wind farms in New Zealand (Powlesland 2009) and furthermore, there is little knowledge of New Zealand bird behaviour around operating wind farms or migratory routes.

Hence most wind farm proposals require extensive pre-construction monitoring in order to understand bird behaviour and habitat utilisation within and adjacent to the wind farm site. Wind farms require permits, known as ‘resource consents’, from local and regional councils for their construction and operation under New Zealand’s primary environmental legislation – the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). This is largely a ‘sustainable development’ enabling act with a focus on avoiding, remedying or mitigating any significant adverse environmental effects. The RMA does not require a ‘no net loss’ or biodiversity offsetting approach as advocated by the Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme.1 However, many developers are incorporating a no net loss and biodiversity offset approach as good practice. The Department of Conservation (DoC), as well as being responsible for management of public land set aside for conservation, have an advocacy role for conservation and protection of indigenous fauna and flora and their habitats and thus often become involved in resource consent application consultation processes as a key stakeholder. In addition, where a resource consent application is considered to be of ‘national importance’ the Government can ‘call in’ the application and have it heard through a ‘Board of Inquiry’, effectively ‘raising the stakes’ for all involved as no opportunity is permitted for the normal second tier Environment Court process, with matters not resolved being subject to High Court proceedings.

The purpose of this paper is to detail how biodiversity offsetting can be used as a means to resolve potentially significant turbine strike of a number of migratory birds associated with the Hauāuru mā raki wind farm (HMR) proposal through the RMA Board of Inquiry process, where DoC was the key stakeholder involved in terms of potential ecological effects.2

The HMR Wind Farm is not yet constructed, but was consented in February 2011. The proposed site is located along approximately 34 km of coastline on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, from 4 km south of Port Waikato to Te Akau, some 8 km north of Raglan (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1Location map of the HMR Wind Farm envelope

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