My wife and I own a Maine Sporting Camp in the western mountains of Maine. We have lived and worked in Highland Plantation for over 33 years, building a business that depends on the wild character of our rural area. For 40 years or more LURC has regulated development here with a focus on protecting the wild character of this land. The view from our place is filled with undeveloped mountains and it is a resource that defines our business and our lives. A short distance up the road from us is the Bigelow Preserve, Flagstaff Lake and the Dead River. These are some of the most beautiful wild areas that Maine has to offer and they are easily accessible. The only place in Maine that can rival the view from the Bigelows is Katahdin. The Appalachian Trail runs across the top of the Bigelow Range after meandering through a jumble of mountains all the way from Rangeley. Satellite photographs taken at night show these woods as a dark area surrounded by artificial lights. This entire area is a unique resource unmatched anywhere in the Eastern United States.

The State of Maine and the federal government have spent millions if not billions of your tax dollars in an effort to protect this wild land. For an example, there is the Tree Growth tax status on the state level and on the federal level there is the Forest Legacy program which has bought development rights from wild land owners to help them afford to keep woodland wild. Ninety percent of Highland Plantation is taxed under Tree Growth. Nearby, at Pierce Pond, Forest Legacy money bought development rights on 7,000 acres of wild land around the watershed. Maine has been behind most other states in percentage of public owned land. For the last 20 years or so we have been catching up to the rest of the country in acquiring or protecting wild lands in order to preserve this one of a kind resource for future generations.

If the governor’s goal of 2,700 megawatts of inland industrial wind power is achieved, it means an end to what is left of Maine’s wild mountains. There will be no place in the entire western mountains that doesn’t have a view of 400-foot-tall turbines and there will be blasting and road building into the most sensitive and remote habitat left in Maine. The flashing red lights alone will eliminate something that doesn’t exist any where else in the east.

The goal in this project is to do our part to reduce the “carbon foot print,” but it appears that the idea that wind power will make a difference in production of “Green House” gases is a myth. As near as I can figure no fossil fuel plants are shut down when wind power comes on line. The wind turbines will put out only about 25 percent of their actual potential due to the inconsistency of wind. The law requires that wind power be purchased above every other source when the wind blows.

Since we already produce a surplus of electricity, something has to give. Shutting down and restarting a fossil fuel plant is difficult to do, so fossil plants run in reserve without producing anything. If that is the case, I don’t believe there is much reduction in greenhouse gas production. Add the mountain top blasting destruction and permanent deforestation for roads and power lines and it seems as though we are adding to the carbon foot print rather than decreasing it.

The reality is that this is a short term federallyfunded job stimulus program. The tax benefits for a small impoverished town like Highland are very tempting but until someone in the wind industry can show some real numbers to prove this project will do what it is supposed to do, I believe it would be insane to sacrifice our wild land heritage.

Greg and Patrice Drummond are residents of Highland Plantation.