THE EARL OF MANSFIELDasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are aware that the new "tracking station" that the Ministry of Defence propose to construct at Loch Strathbeg, in Aberdeenshire, is likely to cause mass destruction to the large numbers of wild geese and ducks frequenting the loch, because of the considerable number of masts, some of them 600 feet high, which, with scores of supporting stays, will be erected across the main flight-lines of these wildfowl; whether they realise that Loch Strathbeg is not only second only to Loch Leven as the most important British wintering ground for such fowl, but is also of considerable importance as far as all Western Europe is concerned; and whether accordingly they will consider the advisability of changing the site to the disused aerodrome at Cairnbulg, a few miles farther north, to which these disadvantages do not apply.
§ LORD CARRINGTONI fully appreciate the importance of Loch Strathbeg as a wintering ground for wildfowl, and my Department has consulted the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and696WA the Nature Conservancy to discuss the hazards to birds that may be caused by the construction of a wireless station there. We have undertaken to keep in contact with these authorities and have agreed to mark isolated wires, if it is found to be necessary, in such a way as to make them more easily visible to the birds.
Cairnbulg was among a number of sites surveyed before we chose Crimond for this station, but it proved too small to meet our needs.