Forthbank Wind Energy Development - Partnerships for Renewables

Forthbank Wind Energy Development
Habitats
Saltmarsh and Intertidal Mudflat
11.4.15 The loss of habitat associated with the construction of the proposed wind energy development
will be confined to the terrestrial habitats within the application area. Consequently, there will
be no loss of saltmarsh or intertidal habitats associated with the adjacent Forth Estuary and
River Black Devon.
11.4.16 Although the likelihood of a moderate scale on-site fuel or chemical spillage is unlikely, the
effects of such an event could result in the degradation of the adjacent saltmarsh and intertidal
mudflat habitats in the short-medium term. Contamination of the mudflats in particular would
likely result in the loss and/or modification of benthic invertebrate communities which the
habitat supports, which in turn would result in the loss of available foraging resource for fish
and wading birds. Therefore, despite these two habitat types only being of local conservation
value, the effects of an unmitigated moderate scale pollution event are expected to have an
adverse effect of minor-moderate significance.
Semi-Improved Neutral Grassland
11.4.17 The installation of the four turbines will result in the permanent loss of several small isolated
plots of relatively species-poor, semi-improved neutral grassland (