Get latest news: http://www.rspb.org.uk/scotland/action/lewis/index.asp

Read objections formulated by IMCG against the proposal to build a wind farm within the northern part of the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides.

For more information visit http://www.mwtlewis.org.uk

see also the developers website at lewiswind.com

and Sign a Petition to Save Isle of Lewis from Massive Windfarm Development

Save Lewis peatland! Formulate your objections!
Country	Scotland
Size	58,984.23 ha
Land ownership	The area is split into three estates, two of which are privately owned, and one community-owned. The crofting tenants of the estates also have certain rights over the land.
Administration	The local council administrators are Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Sandwick Road, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, HS1 2BW. The management authority of the Ramsar site is Scottish Natural Heritage, 2 Anderson Place, Edinburgh, EH6 5NP.
Site location	Latitude: 58 15 00 N, 06 35 00 W Altitude: 20 - 292 m
Site description
Ramsar Criterion 1 - The site qualifies under Criterion 1 by supporting one of the largest and most intact known areas of blanket bog in the world. It includes extensive areas of ombrotrophic or rain-fed bog together with numerous, smaller areas where the peatland lies in depressions and is subject to a flow of water carrying nutrients dissolved from rock and mineral soil. Ramsar Criterion 2 - The site qualifies under Criterion 2 by supporting a number of rare species of wetland birds. There is a diverse population of breeding waterfowl including nationally important populations of red-throated diver Gavia stellata, black-throated diver Gavia artica, golden plover Pluvialis apricaria and greenshank Tringa nebularia. The site is predominantly made up of a near continuous mantle of blanket bog liberally dotted with small pools and lochans. In the southern part of the site the peatland is more broken with outcrops of rocks (Lewisian gneiss) and lochans forming a distinctive “knock and lochan” landscape and including the larger freshwater nutrient-poor lochs of south-central Lewis. The vast expanse of this relatively undisturbed peatland landscape supports a diverse range of associated flora and fauna. With their north-westerly and island location, the Lewis Peatlands are probably the most extremely “Atlantic” of all the blanket mires in Great Britain. In terms of the bioclimatic zones represented, the hyper-oceanic, extremely humid upper boreal zone predominates to an extent found nowhere else in Scotland.
Ecological value
Ramsar criterion 6 – an average of 31% of the breeding population of dunlin, Calidris alpine schinzii (Baltic/UK/Ireland) breed in the area (3400 pairs). The Lewis Peatlands site is predominantly made up of blanket bog habitat consisting of mainly but not exclusively M17 Scirpus cespitosus-Eriophorum vaginatum blanket mire including the Drosera rotundifolia –Sphagnum and Cladonia sub-communities. Drier ground and slopes also contain M19 Calluna vulgaris-Eriophorum vaginatum blanket mire. Wet heath habitat M15 Scirpus cespitosus-Erica tetralix also occurs on slopes, hills and in the knock and lochan landscape of central and south Lewis. Freshwater lochs and lochans are also an important habitat feature of the peatlands consisting mainly of the European habitat features Oligotrophic to mesotrophic standing waters with the vegetation of the Littorelletea uniflorae and/or of the Isoeto-Nanojuncetea (NVC community A22 Littorella uniflora-Lobelia dortmanna), and dystrophic lochs (containing NVC communities M1 Sphagnum auriculatum bog pool community, M2 Sphagnum cuspidatum/recurvum bog pool community and M3 Eriophorum angustifoliu m bog pool community). Nationally important species occurring on the site – Hammarbya paludosa, Campylopus shawii, Sphagnum imbricatum ssp. austini.
Social value
The Isle of Lewis has a rich cultural heritage, and the moorland plays an important part in this. The people of the areas which are threatened by development are mainly Gaelic-speaking crofters. Their villages are close to the coast, but the fringes of the moorland are used for small-scale peat-cutting for domestic use, and the inner moorland is used for grazing livestock. Each stream, pool, mound and rock on the moor is known and named in Gaelic, and many have stories associated with them. Although very little (if any) archaeological investigation has been done, it is recorded in folk-memory that the ancestors of the present-day population used to live on the moorland, and until the 1950’s the crofters moved with their cattle to small stone and/or turf moorland huts called sheilings during the summer months. Those days on the sheilings in the interior of the Lewis peatlands are remembered with great nostalgia by those who spent their childhood summers there, and many people still visit their family sheiling each year, whether for an hour or two or for several months. They are havens of peace and tranquillity. Some people see the Lewis peatlands as a barren featureless expanse of no value, but to those who know the area it is a magical wilderness which, once visited, lingers in the memory and imagination forever.
Current threats
A planning application has been lodged by Lewis Wind Power Ltd, a company owned by AMEC and British Energy, to build the world’s largest windfarm on the Lewis Peatlands. The proposal is for 234 wind turbines, each 140 metres high, with 100 metre diameter rotors. Each turbine will have a base and hardstanding of up to 1,800 metres squared. 2.5 million cubic metres of peat will be excavated, and spread over other areas of peatland. 210 pylons will be required, with associated cabling, as well as 9 substations, control building, 4 concrete plants and 8 compounds. There will be 5 substantial quarries excavating 4 million cubic metres of rock, covering an area of nearly 1.5 million metre squared. 167 kilometres of road will be built on the peatland with a construction corridor of 30 metres. In total the land take of the development will be over 7.5 million metres squared. Almost 90% of local people are opposed to the development. The island relies heavily on tourism, and 90% of tourists visiting the area are opposed to the development. The landowners have already signed leases with the developers, and the local council and politicians have been backing the proposals, with no consultation with the local people. Details of the planning application, including the Environmental Statement, can be viewed at www.lewiswind.com. Objections should be sent to Lesley Thomson, The Scottish Executive, Consents and Emergency Planning Unit, 2nd Floor, Meridian Court, 5 Cadogan Street, Glasgow G2 6AT, UK, e-mail lesley.thomson@scotland.gsi.gov.uk, Objections must be received by 13th December. Objections can be copied to Alasdair Banks, Chief Planning Officer, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Sandwick Road, Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, HS1 2BW, UK, and Scottish Natural Heritage, 2 Anderson Place, Edinburgh, EH6 5NP, UK The developer is Lewis Wind Power, c/o AMEC Wind Energy, Bridge End, Hexham, Northumberland, NE46 4NU, UK.
Scale of ecological value	The peatland is of global importance.
Conservation status	Ramsar wetland
Activities
The measures are taken both by environmentalists and the local community. Local residents have formed a group, Moinnteach gun Mhuileann (Moorland Without Turbines), to try to fight the proposals. The RSPB has also stated that it will oppose the development. Further information can be found at www.mwtlewis.org.uk
Contact person	committee@mwtlewis.org.uk
Date of receipt	19. November 2004, last update 21 - 04 - 2008

Disclaimer

The information on this site has been checked by IMCG members to their best knowledge. However, we request everybody who disagrees with the information on this site to contact the IMCG secretariat.

www.imcg.net last update 04.02.2007