Wind turbines concern state, Audubon

Fearing that 400-foot-tall wind power turbines could pose a danger to migrating birds, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and Maine Audubon have raised concerns about a wind farm proposed for Mars Hill Mountain in Aroostook County.

Though wind energy should be encouraged, this project’s application just doesn’t contain enough information about how the turbines might affect local wildlife, according to Jody Jones, a wildlife ecologist with Maine Audubon.

A new Bangor company called Evergreen Wind Power LLC has filed an application with the Department of Environmental Protection to place 33 turbines atop Mars Hill. The company, which has links to an established European wind developer, began investigating Mars Hill’s potential in 2002 as the first of several possible wind farms in Maine. Evergreen announced its intentions last July, and, if permits are approved by DEP, construction could begin as early as this spring.

More than 70 species of birds and several species of bats are believed to live near Mars Hill Mountain, but the area is not believed to be a major migration route.

According to the company’s application, the modern turbines proposed for the development shut down at high speeds, reducing the risk of killing wildlife.

Evergreen also has offered to study bird and bat mortality after the turbines are built, and to take whatever measures are necessary to solve any problems that arise.

Comments written by biologists at DIF&W, however, argue that the ridge where the turbines would be placed may provide exactly the sort of updrafts that many songbirds and raptors, such as eagles and hawks, rely upon while they are migrating.

Evergreen based its findings on limited research – time spent observing birds at the site totaled less that 18 hours over a six-month period, and did not include any fieldwork at night, when many songbirds migrate, according to DIF&W.

A minimum of one spring migration and one fall migration need to be studied in depth before state biologists can give their OK to the project, wrote Ken Elowe, the head of Maine’s Bureau of Resource Management in a letter dated earlier this month.

Elowe also raised concerns that Evergreen never mentioned in pre-application meetings with state biologists that the upland sandpiper, which has been listed by the state as threatened, has been spotted in the vicinity of the development. Only when the application was filed did the state learn that the rare bird may use the area as habitat.

Surveys of the proposed development site should be conducted to learn whether construction would disturb any of the rare birds, Elowe wrote.

In her comments, filed last week, Jones of Maine Audubon added that tall, lighted structures like the turbines can actually attract birds, particularly in fog.

Not enough studies of migratory routes have been done in Maine to draw any conclusions about the risks that these turbines pose to birds and bats, she wrote.

Maine Audubon has proposed nighttime radar studies during the spring and fall migrations to ensure that the Mars Hill location is appropriate for Maine’s first wind farm.

However, neither group completely opposes the project, and neither asked for a public hearing by last month’s deadline. Both have offered Evergreen their “technical assistance” in making the project better.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine, the state’s largest environmental group, last week came out in favor of the project as proposed, saying that the environmental benefits of “clean” wind energy outweigh the minimal effect on birds.

More birds die from flying into buildings, more are hit by cars, and more are killed by house cats than are harmed by wind turbines, said Pete Didisheim, advocacy director for NRCM.

Meanwhile, people in New England are dying every day of illnesses related to pollution spewing from the coal and nuclear power plants that could be replaced with wind energy, he said.

“Additional studies are unnecessary and would only cause a delay in a project that inherently brings environmental benefits,” Didisheim said.

DEP will consider comments filed by all three groups before approving or rejecting the permit application in coming weeks.