What follows are two letters I wrote to the former Commissioner of Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, back in the early days of my involvement in the Wind Energy Plan for Maine. To my relief, the MDIFW has recently stepped up to the plate and written an Agency Comment to LURC about the detrimental impacts the Highland Wind project will have on this area's native animals. I don't know if a change in the Administration in Augusta had anything to do with that, but whatever the reason; many Mainers are breathing a sigh of relief and feeling a ray of hope.
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December 20, 2009
Maine Dept. of IF&W
41 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0041
Dear Commissioner Martin,
I am writing to you from my home on the side of Hutchins Hill in Lexington Township, Somerset County. I am a Maine native, and have been a resident of this area since 1967, when my father was transferred here from Down East in Washington County. For fifteen years, these forests and mountains were a part of his district. He was a Maine State Game Warden, and retired in 1982 after twenty years of service.
The reason for this letter is to request your assistance. As I’m sure you are aware, there is a large-scale push to build industrial wind turbine developments along the ridges of our unspoiled mountains. There are many, many reasons why this plan is a colossal mistake. It is economically unfeasible, and there are huge health concerns and indisputable ‘quality of life issues’. As well, there will be irreversible environmental impacts—none of which will be positive influences on our ecosystems. I could expound on any of these issues, but I will concern myself with the topic which directly concerns you and your office; the wild animals of Maine.
Commissioner, I am not an expert on wildlife. I am not a biologist, nor a veterinarian. What I am is a woman who has spent her life in the company of animals, both wild and domestic. Before I could tie my shoes I’d bottle-fed a fawn. Before I could ride my bicycle, I was caring for raccoon kits. I have hand-fed fledgling hawks and owls. Accompanied Dad as he relocated beavers. Trapped coons in neighbors’ gardens to bring home and release in my own. I am a small scale farmer, too; as were my parents. I have raised horses, goats, steers, chickens, turkeys and pigs. For forty-four of my forty-six years, I have had dogs and cats in my home.
I know animals.
There is a remarkable dearth of information on the effects of these industrial turbines on our native fauna. Since I discovered Independence Wind’s intention to erect forty-nine 400’-500’ foot tall turbines along eight miles of forested mountaintops in Highland Plantation, I have been trying to discover evidence of exhaustive studies showing what effects these massive machines will have on the wildlife of our state–studies that should have been completed prior to the passage of LD#2283, the expedited permitting law which removes many of the standard restrictions for development of Maine’s rural and unorganized territories. It has become clear to me that these analyses have not been done.
As a woman with instincts of her own, I am appalled that no one seems to be asking the questions that immediately came to my mind. What will happen to our animals? How will the constant noise and change in the atmosphere around these sites affect an animal’s mating habits and its ability to carry its young to term? What will the vibrations sent throughout the bedrock of the mountains do to a hibernating animal’s instinctual need to den up during our harsh winters? What effect will the blasting of mountaintops and the building and maintaining of roads through untouched woodland have on the circuitous hunting and foraging trails of that forest’s wildlife? Wild animals are even more sensitive to changes in their environment than we are. Their senses are heightened. If human beings are getting sickened by the noise, and by the pulsing and thrumming air, and by the disorienting shadow flicker, then what effects will such elemental changes have on our native wildlife? Do we have the facts? We have one. And that fact is: We don’t know!
I am frustrated. It appears that the departments that are charged with protecting our natural resources have not been actively involved in any type of concerted effort to ascertain the ramifications of such massive encroachments into the wilds of Maine. I understand fully that there are powers which have sway over this issue and how our government agencies deal with it. But they shouldn’t have that power or influence. We are all charged with protecting those plants and animals which cannot speak for themselves. And we citizens expect that those in positions of authority will not let ‘big money’ or an administration run amok keep them from their appointed tasks.
Therefore, I am asking that you get involved. That you take a stand. That you vociferously lend your voice to both the wildlife of this state, and to the citizens who are tired of having others run rough-shod over us. Maine’s natural resources are what make this state unique. If we lose those, we’ve lost everything that is special; everything that really matters.
Please use your position to push for a moratorium on any permits issued under LD #2283 until we are sure, beyond a doubt, that these industrial developments will not have a detrimental effect on the wild and native creatures of Maine. Please use your own influence to push for studies (real, unbiased studies, and not those conducted by entities on the payroll of wind developers) to determine what consequences the turbines, and the massive infrastructure involved in their placement, will have on the animals of our forests. Please stand up for those creatures which depend on you and your department for their health and welfare.
I look forward to hearing from you, and if there is any way I can assist you, please don’t hesitate to ask. I have a voice, and a vote, and a willingness to stand up for what’s right. The resident animals of this great state deserve our consideration. It’s time we stopped ignoring their right to live unmolested in this home that was theirs long before we humans moved in.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Karen L. Pease
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And, my second letter to Commissioner Martin:
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January 18, 2010
Roland Martin, Commissioner
ME Dept. of IF&W
284 State St.
Augusta, ME 04333-0041
Dear Commissioner Martin,
I am in receipt of your January 11th response to my letter expressing my concerns about industrial wind development on the mountain ridges of Maine. Thank you for taking the time to reply.
In all honesty, I am disappointed by your response. I am going to be frank, and I hope that you will appreciate my candor and accept it for what it is; an honest woman with some intelligence who hopes to be spoken to in a straightforward and truthful manner.
You indicate that it is accepted as a ‘given’ that Maine’s mountaintops will be sacrificed to benefit developers of industrial wind complexes. You consider it a ‘done deal’. Our federal and state administrations decided that they were going to fast-track ‘big wind’, and I imagine they charged the departments under their authority to stay out of the way and not create any waves. Not any real waves… just a token few to placate a public that might have some serious concerns about these encroachments and their impact on this land and its inhabitants. At the state level, LD#2283 was designed in part by developers and endorsed by the Governor’s Task Force on Wind, and the people’s own representatives voted unanimously for that ‘emergency’ bill without debate—some without ever having read it. LURC’s normal discretionary powers were, for the most part, removed so that these developments could be permitted. Maine’s residents had their powers and their rights as citizens greatly curtailed so that we could not stand in the way of this industry.
However, LD#2283 and the issues surrounding its passage and implementation are matters that are beyond your control, and are ones that our senators and representatives must answer to and rectify. Instead, I will once more implore you to put politics aside and make the wildlife of Maine your primary concern. I do not know what you have been charged with. I am not privy to the orders you receive from ‘above’. But, Commissioner Martin, you are in effect saying that industrial wind developers will be allowed to build myriad roads through the forests and along the hillsides of Maine. You concede they will blast the bedrock and level the summits to build their concrete pads. They will strip the vegetation from the peaks and the transmission corridors, and they will control that vegetation with herbicides. They will erect monstrous towers which create incessant noise and disorienting shadow flicker. And while you recognize that all these massive changes to the habitat of our native species are imminent, all you can promise is that you will ‘request’ that the developer ‘conduct investigative studies to assess potential risk’.
That is not acceptable on many levels. The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife shouldn’t request, they should demand! And it should not be Independence Wind’s consultants who these conduct studies. There is a direct conflict of interest when a consultant is being paid by the very businessmen whose development he is investigating. The developer should pay for the assessments, yes. But that money should be placed in a trust account managed by a third party, and the scientists conducting the studies should not in any way ‘answer’ to the entity whose actions are being looked into.
I do not believe it is responsible or prudent to concern ourselves only with those species with ‘special conservation needs’. If we do not take care of all the species in this state, we will find the list of those with ‘special needs’ growing by leaps and bounds. Even if only one or two species are adversely affected, that may very well impact the entire food chain with a domino effect.
I gather from your response that you believe these developments are inevitable. Your policy seems to be that once one is in place, we will wait and see what consequences it has on the wildlife in its environs. And then, we will use the data gained at their expense to mitigate the damage caused by the next wind energy plant.
Please let me say again: This is not acceptable. It shouldn’t be, should it? We have always placed the needs of mankind over the needs of the other species on this planet. We shouldn’t be deciding what level of impact is ‘acceptable’. The animals have no need for electricity, and yet, we expect them to sacrifice for our needs. As well, Maine itself produces more power than we consume. Why should our mountains, forests and wildlife be sacrificed to provide for those in southern New England with greater electrical needs?
I am looking for people who are willing to stand up and do what’s right. I’m not looking for lip service or placation. It’s time we started acting like the stewards we are supposed to be. Please take a stand on this issue and do what your integrity tells you to do. I am willing to do what I can to assist you, but I need to know that for Maine’s Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife, the fish and wildlife come first. As the daughter of a Maine State Game Warden, that is what I was taught. I would hate to discover that it was all a farce.
Please feel free to call me at the above number, or email me for expediency’s sake. I look forward to working with you to protect our wildlife from the advent of intrusive wind turbines in their natural homes; our unspoiled regions of Maine.
Sincerely,
Karen L. Pease
P.S. If you have not had the opportunity to research and study all the facets of wind turbine developments, there is a plethora of information available. There are answers to many of the questions that the general public hasn’t even thought to ask. I hope you are concerned enough to search for the truth instead of buying the party line. A good place to begin is this website, www.highlandmts.org, and there are links there to help you expand your search. Thank you, sir, for your time.
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Photo of Patty Porcupine (with cat "Stevie" in the rear)taken by Josie Pease on our porch, May 2010.
Photo of cow and calf moose taken by Karen Pease in Mayfield, June 2010
Photo of osprey and fledgling taken by Karen Pease in Abbott Village, July 2010
Photo of Canadian geese taken by Karen Pease in July, 2010
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