Windmills coming to public land near you

[huntin24/7]

I cant speak for other species, but I know growing up in North central north dakota, when the wind turbines came into an area about 10 miles from us, it had a large effect on waterfowl. It was an area about 10 miles east-west that they were used, and it immediately affected waterfowl migration. Local lakes in that path that had thousands of ducks and geese using them every fall had very few birds on them. I noticed that it didnt affect the migration only a few miles from the edge of where the wind turbines. Not scientific evidence I know, but observations from about 15 years of hunting that area.

 

[glass eye]

Windmills popped up on Maui. These Nenes where directly under the windmills. I hate them, they're ugly. They've been wanting to put a bunch of them on Lana'i where I hunt axis deer and mouflon sheep, so far the residents have kept them away.

 

[TOGIE]

i was just in maui in june, we could see the wind mills by mcgregor point from our resort in wailea. i kept complaining to my wife how much more beautiful that hillside would look without a bunch of 300 foot tall, spinning, War of the Worlds death machines on it

 

[glass eye]

Right now there are protest going on to stop a new observatory on Mauna Kea. If Mauna Kea was a pristine mountain peak I could understand the protest, but there are already 13 observatories on the mountain, so what difference does one more make ? People now days just like to protest, doesn't matter what for, just protest. Even Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is up there protesting.

 

[Losing_Sanity]

drive through iowa now.. you don't want those god*mn things anywhere around you. now at night instead of just a nice dark sky its a sea of red lights, and I'm sure it impacts all the wildlife too, how can it not?

I agree!
Where I live they are popping up everywhere. When we bought our home we had a great view of the foothills and beautiful night skys with stars. Now nothing but blinking red lights and wind turbines. For the owner of the windmills, those red lights mean money and thats all they care about. No one asked or cared if we minded. And none of the electricity stays in our state.
I know that my distaste for them is not the same or even as important as most of the other issues with windmills on this post, but it sure is important to me.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

@Big Fin Do you have any insight you can share about this particular bill and why conservation groups (TU, BHA, TWS) are supporting it?

Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but the bill is sponsored by the whose who of the land transfer caucus and having made my career in the energy industry I have 0 faith this will be anything but a net negative for public lands and recreational use.

 

[Big Fin]

@Big Fin Do you have any insight you can share about this particular bill and why conservation groups (TU, BHA, TWS) are supporting it?

Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but the bill is sponsored by the whose who of the land transfer caucus and having made my career in the energy industry I have 0 faith this will be anything but a net negative for public lands and recreational use.

I'm not sure of the background of this bill or the support it has been given. I would ask them and see what answers you get.

 

[antelopedundee]

I don't want OG E&Ps to be out there either.

The "billion dollar" solutions are the products of lazy minds. It's easy to conceive and then throw money at a big damn, power plant, etc. We need our law makers to focus on the million $1000 solutions, they create more jobs in the long run and are more effective than a monolithic project.

Funny there is a yuge wind farm behind the Dave Johnston power plant along I-25 near Glenrock. I understand it's also on the other side of the interstate now. Will see come October. I can see it from where I hunt by Douglas.

 

[antelopedundee]

I'm clearly not an expert, but why does these wind turbines always seem to be placed in nice natural areas away from civilization. Why can't be build wind turbines on top of skyscrapers? Or replace every cell phone/radio tower with a wind turbine/cell phone tower combo?

I thought in the interstate highway medians would be great.

 

[Deleted member 18333]

The take action request on the BHA website has been taken down. Interesting? Or nothing?

 

[NYyotekiller]

I’ve spent quite a lot of time working around a few wind farms in my years as a Land Surveyor. Mostly the ones in Northern Pennsylvania. During construction of these windmills and the infrastructure to support them these energy companies were very careless and generally wrecked or ruined everything that came in their way. Roads were ruined and never fixed. Wetlands were blown right through and never fixed post construction. To this day I’m still not sure how they got away with what they did. I still hear horror stories from landowners that have had these windmills on their farms and still haven’t made a cent on them after about 10 years of production. Some have to pay for construction costs out of the royalties until they will get anything at all.

That’s just the beginning of the negative effects I’ve seen these wind farms do to the landscape. They are much louder than you think and can be heard from miles away. One landowner I spoke to has to keep his blinds in his home closed from 1pm until dark because the sun is directly behind the windmill and it causes a strobe light effect on the front windows of his home. Not the thing I want to deal with living where I live. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with them at my place but there are some companies that are looking to expand locally I’ve heard unfortunately.

 

[1976]

An interesting fact about the proposed Burke county wind farm was that the majority of land owners were opposed to the project, those that were in favor were mostly absent landowners (those that live out of state or of the land in another county), being a stones throw to the east and having a good friend that is a landowner in Burke I attended a meeting to witness the local conversation with the energy company and members of the state Industrial commission and county commissioners, Burke is no stranger to energy development and many individuals are either employed or have an interaction with the oil and gas industry in the region. What I came away with was pretty much regardless of local input which was probably in the 80% against, state and local gov had their mind made up that this was going to happen, you know gotta have economic development. Well there was a sigh of relief from Burke county that could be heard 40 miles east when the ND State Game And Fish along with the USFWS gave their opinion which basically said you could not find a worst place to have a wind farm, thank god. Immediately the conservative pundits were on the air waves, of course their for any and all so called economic development and pretty much can't understand why landowners would oppose the farm and hammered the hell out of the Wildlife Agency's report. My thoughts are build them around Minneapolis, St. Paul, thats where the juice ends up, even more so now since they don't like our coal anymore.

 

[hossblur]

I'm not sure of the background of this bill or the support it has been given. I would ask them and see what answers you get.

I have. Asked chapter pres. Regional folks. BHA HQ. Damn quiet. I know I get constant emails on anything they(we) support, but this one I had to actually go search for.

Development is development. And if all it costs is 25% Wildlife donation, I'm betting BP, Exxon, Wilkes are seeing a damn good investment.

My friend, from where a lot of us stand, we are seeing, smelling, sensing HYPOCRICY and SELLOUT.

Sure be glad go great otherwise

 

[hossblur]

To read. I hate auto correct

 

[Gr8bawana]

https://www.facebook.com/133494720018263/posts/2572543286113382

That lower map confuses me, I can't remember the last time I saw a bighorn crossing the street near the Palms or McCarran airport.
In all seriousness though I can assure you that the proposed area for the project is nowhere near any bighorn habitat. It is down in the valley very near I 15. There is absolutely nothing there. I don't know why anyone would have a problem with this project.
One thing the following map fails to show is the Republic Services garbage dump between the site and the freeway. There is already a giant solar array on the other side of the freeway that is not shown on the map.

 

[antelopedundee]

Around here those things are like dog chit; they're EVERYWHERE!

 

[BrentD]

somebody around here must know. What proportion of windmills have bullet holes in them? Seems that folks that cannot resist signs, fence posts, misc. landscape trash, can't possible pass up a windmill target.

Anyone know?

 

[MTGomer]

That lower map confuses me, I can't remember the last time I saw a bighorn crossing the street near the Palms or McCarran airport.
In all seriousness though I can assure you that the proposed area for the project is nowhere near any bighorn habitat. It is down in the valley very near I 15. There is absolutely nothing there. I don't know why anyone would have a problem with this project.
One thing the following map fails to show is the Republic Services garbage dump between the site and the freeway. There is already a giant solar array on the other side of the freeway that is not shown on the map.



View attachment 111171

I don’t know much about the FDB or the people in it, but what you say seems to be similar to the EIS Miller posted. Assuming you’re correct, I wonder why FDB is pushing back against it?

This is the group in Randy’s new video ‘Selfless’

 

[BuzzH]

IMO, windmills and solar should have to go through the exact same process as any other development. I would find it absolutely impossible to believe that wind and solar are any less impactful surface disturbance wise, than oil and gas. Both require a pretty big footprint, both require roads, and I would guess that big-game avoid them much the same as they do well pads and roads.

I guess we'll be finding out. I listened to a presentation about the chokecherry wind project in Wyoming not long ago. The GF will have before and after development maps of the migration patterns of gps collared elk, pronghorn and mule deer for that project. From talking with the presenters, it sounded to me like they are expecting about the same impacts/avoidance for all those species with wind developments as they do well pads. That has some in the wind industry all twisted up, but too bad...let the science shake out and see what the impacts are to big-game migration, use patterns, etc.

Its also my opinion that with the level of development on private lands, we don't need to be speeding up or developing more of our public lands, at least not without the same level of scrutiny that would be applied to any other form of development. Fair standards need to apply for all.

 

[glass eye]

somebody around here must know. What proportion of windmills have bullet holes in them? Seems that folks that cannot resist signs, fence posts, misc. landscape trash, can't possible pass up a windmill target.

Anyone know?

I hate that. People who shoot signs and other things are the reason why places get closed to hunting.