IEEM Conferences

I have recently been to two excellent and thought-provoking conferences organised by the IEEM.

The first of these was a two day conference in Cardiff entitled Renewable Energy and Biodiversity Impacts. There was a wide range of speakers from diverse professional backgrounds, giving an interesting overview of various aspects of the interactions between renewables and wildlife. Aside from the (by now well known) bat and bird issues associated with onshore wind farms, there was consideration of other forms of renewable energy including solar parks, a potential Severn barrier and, of course, offshore wind.

I attended an IEEM conference on a similar theme in London a few years ago (I think 2006), and it was interesting to reflect on the changes in the zeitgeist between the two conferences. Of course, there has been a whole raft of new guidance for ecologists on surveys and EcIA for renewable energy developments in the intervening time, and this conference reflected that quite well. For example, whereas a few years ago a lot of the angst expressed seemed to be around bird/ turbine impacts, surveys for birds at proposed wind turbine sites are now steered by some generally good guidance, and the impression was given that general bird impacts are at least a better understood issue now, and as a result more quantifiable and ultimately can be better avoided.

However, not a single presentation gave evidence of bird carcass monitoring at operating wind farms, and it seems that there is still a lack of monitoring data and real-world collision rates for many bird species. This is a concern, long known about but still yet to be properly addressed through published materials. It is ironic that bat collisions are being well studied by Defra funded research from Exeter University, even though their potential collision risk has been of concern for less time than that for birds.

The second conference was a very well attended conference for the East of England section of the IEEM in Essex. There was some very interesting discussion around reptile issues, particularly from Dr David Sewell, Jim Foster, Nigel Hand and Paul Edgar. David’s talk gave an insight into the latest research on survey effort required for reptile and amphibian surveys, which led nicely into Jim’s discussion of the issues surrounding the new reptile survey guidance, its withdrawal and forthcoming re-issue. Nigel’s talk was very much more hands-on, describing the tracked movements of adders in the West Midlands. It seems that, in the early season at least, female adders are very sedentary, while males go a bit further afield to forage, but still not all that far. Paul’s talk gave us an interesting update on recent changes at Natural England, and perhaps an indication of future directions for that organisation.

All in all definitely worth the few days out of the office, and great to meet a few interesting fellow professionals as well.

Rob