An advocacy group is urging the wind turbine industry to take action to protect the province’s moose population.
The Moose Conservation Association of Nova Scotia (MCANS) says before wind turbine projects can proceed, accurate movements of moose in development areas need to be known.
MCANS says the current method of studying trail camera footage is a deficient method for data collection on moose habitats and the group is calling for collaring of moose instead.
“When you have a trail camera, (you) only get where they’re at in that particular time; you don’t get where they’re going, where they’re coming from, how long they stayed there, anything like that,” says Al Muir, acting president of MCANS.
“If you had a collar on them, you, there’s continuous monitoring of them, you know where exactly they go, how long they stay there,” he continues. “And that would include over the seasons.”
Muir adds MCANS has been meeting with wind turbine developers for the past few months in attempt to promote a voluntary approach to more rigorous assessment of moose in development areas, including the possible funding of collaring adoption methods.
“They’re interested in more conversations, but again as I said, it’s been six months,” says Muir of discussions with developers. “Right now, their environmental assessment is going to be submitted in the first quarter of next year, so we’re not far off here.”
Muir says that once those assessments are submitted, they could be approved soon after and construction on towers could begin by the summer.
However, Muir insists the current assessments are insufficient and MCANS is hoping the province will update developers’ environmental assessment requirements to include collaring programs to get a more rounded sense of how wind turbines could interrupt the animals’ environments.
“They just give snapshots, trail cameras,” says Muir. “They don’t give anywhere near a complete picture that a collar would provide.”
In 2021, the provincial government released a recovery plan in which the aim was to address threats, protect and enhance habitat, improve connectivity and ensure regular monitoring of mainland moose in Nova Scotia.
