One week left to protect the birds at Chaplin

click on the image above to go to a page where you will hear the sounds of Chaplin grasslands

There are only six days remaining to express opposition to the site chosen for a wind farm in native grassland adjacent to the Western Hemisphere Shore Bird Reserve at Chaplin. (See previous posts here for more details.)

Email your comments before the end of day on November 17 to environmental.assessment@gov.sk.ca

I have heard that there have only been fifteen emails sent to environmental assessment on this issue so far. That may not be enough. 

We are told that 34 of the 79 turbines in this proposal will be placed right in the native grassland. As the province's Technical Review itself points out, this will destroy an estimated 62 hectares of native prairie, which supports many species at risk. In a province that has lost more than 80 % of its native grassland, it is unacceptable for the government to give its blessing to a project that will eliminate that many hectares of a rare habitat and create a disturbance that will in effect degrade the quality of many more hectares of habitat radiating outward from the footprint at each of the 34 sites.

Wind energy is going to be a vital part of our future in this province, but we must get this right by working together to identify areas where we can place wind farms without destroying and degrading native grassland and displacing species at risk.

If you need inspiration, I urge you to listen to this chorus of grassland bird song recorded at Chaplin by a well-known birdsong recordist just three months ago. Bob McGuire traveled from his home in New England to Saskatchewan this summer specifically to record the sounds of our endangered grassland birds. This is an incredible recording and gives you a sense of the value of our remaining native grasslands at Chaplin and elsewhere. The birds you will hear in the recording, including Sprague's Pipit and Baird's Sparrow, need large pieces of native grass to thrive.

Many of these birds will be silenced if the province approves the current site for the Chaplin wind farm. 

Finally, I urge you to add your signature to this Avaaz petition on the project as well.

A Baird's Sparrow in full song--one of many species that needs the grassland at Chaplin to remain intact