The U.K.’s Lancashire Evening Post (LEP) recently reported on the efforts of a local citizen who launched an online petition aimed at saving the belted beauty moth from the harm it could face from a cabling-installation project. According to the LEP, Graham Dixon of Preston is petitioning Eric Pickles, secretary of state for communities and local government, to protect the moth as Dong Energy progresses with its plans for a wind-farm cabling project.
The petition asks Pickles to “prevent the routing of wind-farm cabling through the saltmarsh south of Heysham as part of the Walney Extension Offshore Windfarm.” The petition explains the belted beauty’s population is declining in the area, and states, “Proposals by the energy company have included trenching and, more recently, tunneling through parts of the site.” It adds that the petition’s purpose is “to remind government of their responsibility to promote biodiversity and to ensure this rare moth is protected at its last viable English site.”
The LEP story quotes Dong Energy communications manager Paul Childs as saying the firm “has undertaken an environmental impact assessment for the proposed wind farm and is fully aware of the saltmarsh habitat and belted beauty moth. The developer has been in communication with Butterfly Conservation, Lancashire Moth Group and Natural England on this issue throughout. This has included several site visits to the saltmarsh with the groups, and have changed the way we propose to install the cable, using a more specialist, high-tech method beneath the saltmarsh to avoid the moth population.”
You can visit the online petition here.
