Re[2]: [at-l] "The Trail Isn't Really Wilderness Anyway..."

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

     The following is a slightly edited version of the message I am providing
     Maine environmental groups as I seek support for MATC's opposition to the
     wind power proposal for the Western Maine mountains. I can't comment on
     Vermont and its governor. But:


 I oppose the proposed Endless Energy windpower project in the western mountains
of Maine. I don't make this suggestion lightly. I believe in alternative energy.
I've written a book on the subject, designed and built two passive solar houses,
and helped convert a century-old historic town office into a modern, super
insulated town facility.

But this project is simply located in too valuable an area to meet the criteria
of the Maine law. Endless Energy proposes its 28 giant towers, topped with
swirling blades, to be located as close as a mile to one of the most scenic
sections of the world's most famous walking path, a path built and maintained
mostly by volunteers and protected by Congress as the nation's first National
Scenic Trail.

This project will devastate the view that thousands of hikers sense is one of
the wildest and most remote sections of the entire 2,160-mile Appalachian trail.

Yes, this is a heavily developed area by rural Maine standards, but the
development is largely invisible to hikers using the trail. They see a tiny
corner of the Saddleback ski area, the lights of Rangeley at night, a small
building or two on the summit of Sugarloaf -- and what appears to most casual
hikers as an undeveloped wilderness as far as the eye can see to the north, west
and south. I've helped maintain the Appalachian Trail for 20 years. Ten years
ago I walked north from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katahdin. I can attest
that few sections rival the beauty of the Saddleback-Redington area.

The Saddleback to Crocker Range is one of the longest roadless sections of the
trail -- 32 miles between Route 4 and Route 27 -- north of the Smokies in North
Carolina and Tennessee.

Replacing this sense of wildness would be 28 towers, each 12 feet in diameter
and up to 325 feet tall, topped by 125-foot lighted, whirling blades.

The project makes a mockery of the long and sometimes bitter struggle with the
Saddleback Ski area over the location of the trail. The compromise -- paid for
with $4 million in taxpayer dollars -- largely left the decision about future
development on the mountain to Maine. It's hard to imagine what kind of ski
expansion the regulatory agencies could rationally reject if they approve an
industrial-sized power complex less than a mile away and in full view of the
open Saddleback ridgeline and from almost every overlook along 20 miles of the
trail.

The photo simulation that Endless Energy has distributed seems to have little
relationship to reality. By happenstance the steeple of an 1802 church is
visible just a mile away across water, fields and woods from my living room
window. It is a major factor in the landscape. I find it hard to believe that
gray paint would in any significant way obscure 28 objects four or five times
higher. From the top of my driveway I can see a lighthouse two miles down the
river. It is the dominant feature in the land and seascape. Could 28 towers,
each eight times taller also not dominate the view from the mountains of Western
Maine?

A few years ago I saw a photo simulation of the stack proposed for the addition
to an oil generating plant. It showed an almost invisible gray streak in a photo
of Casco Bay. The reality proved quite different. I live 15 miles across Casco
Bay from the stack. From every hillside with views of the bay that stack is a
major part of the scene.

I've visited the site of the proposed wind towers on Redington. From the
northernmost tower site I can see with naked eyes the outlines of every 30-foot
(9 meter) stunted fir on nearby Crocker Mountain. When 80 or 100 meter towers
are viewed in the opposite direction from Crocker is it logical to claim
"(a)dequate provision has been made for fitting the proposal harmoniously into
the existing natural environment in order to assure there will be no undue
adverse effect on existing uses, scenic character and natural and historic
resources..." as the Maine statute requires. Alternative energy sources are
important. But it is also important as we enter this new age of scarce petroleum
supplies that we do not willy, nilly destroy other things of major value in the
process of converting to a more rational energy source.

We need to use judgment and caution. The logic that says any alternative energy
development needs to be endorsed, even one that would dominate the viewshed of
the Appalachian Trail, probably would also require we look again at damming the
West Branch of the Penobscot or to petition Congress to revive Dickey Lincoln on
the wild St. John River, both wild river damming projects stopped by
environmentalists after long and bitter battles.

Like the Endless Energy's proposal for Redington, the West Branch and St. John
projects would supply significant amounts of alternative renewable energy, and
severely damage important other resources in the process.

Weary