I wrote the following Letter to the Editor in April of 2010. At that time, Highland Wind LLC's original project application was suspended by LURC, due to incompleteness. They submitted a revised application, reducing the number of turbines to 39, in December of 2010. HW LLC withdrew that application on May 2, 2011, with 'intent to refile' at a later date. We don't know when it will be refiled, and we don't know what aspects will change, this time. All we know is that special places such as Gilman Pond are still at risk.
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For one brief summer, I was a camp owner on Gilman Pond in Lexington Township. My husband and I purchased a ramshackle cabin with a scant 50 feet of frontage on the water. We really couldn’t afford to keep the property; it was an investment. We worked away on it nights and weekends, and our two youngest children scrabbled on the rocks with their life jackets on, feeding bread crumbs to the pickerel and skipping rocks across the gentle swell of water.
Steven and I worked hard, but we made a point of enjoying the lake-front experience, too. From the camp’s deck we watched the resident loon family… gazed in awe as papa loon caught fish and swam over to mama who carried junior on her back. Watching the family share a meal was a touching experience and listening to their mournful call was the stuff of dreams. We were also treated to an ‘up close and personal’ view of bald eagles as they fished the waters of Gilman. No matter that the iconic raptor is no longer classified an ‘endangered’… seeing such a mighty bird on the wing gave an instant high.
The view from the pond is fantastic. The mountains of Highland rise above the north end and give completeness to the notion of a pristine and quiet western Maine pond. Often, we would be treated to the sight of moose as they waded the shallow north shore, dredging the pond for succulent reeds and weeds. Seeing them framed against the backdrop of our hills perfected the image.
The camp was sold, and we made a little money from the investment. But we miss those precious stolen moments with the soothing lull of the waves lapping the shore and the best of our native wildlife just a snapshot away. Now, however, that beautiful view and that feeling of communing with nature are about to be taken away. Highland Wind LLC has submitted a permit application to erect 48 forty-story industrial wind turbines along the crest of each of Highland’s mountains.
Forget that Maine already produces more energy than we need. Forget the fact that intermittent wind power is not nearly the ‘green’ product it’s touted as being. Never mind that the turbines are manufactured in Denmark and China, and that our hard-earned subsidy dollars are supporting those nations and not ours. Disregard the economic impacts created by gigantic turbines replacing firs trees as the sentinels of our Appalachians. Ignore the fact that huge and permanent roads will replace wetlands, or that precious habitat will be fragmented. Never mind that water quality may be affected and quality of place and quality of life will be forever altered for the residents living in the vicinity of Big Wind. Forget all that.
A perfect, small pond in the shadow of Highland’s mountains… if we do nothing to stop industrial wind, we might as well forget that, too.
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Photos: Top, young bull moose in Lexington Twp.
Middle, Josie and Eli enjoying a quiet Maine pond, nine years after we sold the Gilman Pond camp
Bottom, Canada geese on Gilman Stream, the outlet to Gilman Pond
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