Nature must come first in Lenox

Betsy Dovydenas, Berkshire Eagle, September 30, 2005

[Reprinted with permission from the author.]

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To the Editor:

I first heard about the proposed Yokun Ridge wind turbines from a neighbor. I was surprised to learn that the Lenox Watershed, part of the Yokun Ridge, was targeted for development by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, an organization funded by industry and tax dollars. MTC is promoting wind energy in the Berkshires. The Lenox town manager and Selectmen appear to have been persuaded to consider installing one or more turbines on Yokun Ridge.

This would be industrial development of watershed land: the wildest, most untouched part of Lenox could have roads as wide as a highway, above-ground electrical lines, and any number of wind turbines, flashing lights, loud rotor noises. Birds and bats would die in the spinning blades. (A wind project in California has been ordered to shut down for two months during periods of bird migration, and to entirely remove a number of towers because they kill so many birds.) The top of the mountain would be cleared of trees and vegetation, flattened, fenced and filled in with hundreds of tons of concrete to anchor each tower.

I started talking to environmentalists, here, in New York and in Minnesota. I asked them: Is this a good solution to our energy problems? The answer I got is that, yes, we need alternate sources of energy, but, no, wind energy is not a good solution. It is inefficient and the sites have to be carefully chosen. Field researchers, who actually spend time in nature, see how destructive wind turbines are on the environment. They worry about the balance of nature. If some birds die, some insects will thrive. Bats eat mosquitoes, some of which carry the West Nile virus. Song birds leave the area.

The woods become sterilized.

I personally think nature is more precious than our energy needs. I think mankind's spiritual needs are enmeshed with the survival and nurture of land and wildlife. I think the worth of a people is visible in how they treat the natural world. The Yokun Ridge has been around for at least a million years. GE's wind turbines, like GE's PCBs in the Housatonic River, will be an ugly testament to our indifference to nature's beauty for a long, long time.

Wind energy is being pushed in the Berkshires by MTC. Other parts of the state are fighting hard to keep it out. Gov. Romney doesn't want wind at the Cape, but he thinks it's fine in the Berkshires. Why is the beauty of Cape Cod superior to the beauty of our mountains? It seems to me that MTC, General Electric and wealthy investors stand to benefit the most by harvesting the big tax credits at the expense of our Berkshire hills. Wind turbines on Berkshire ridgelines will be a problem, not a solution.

On Oct. 5, the Lenox Selectmen will hold a hearing on the proposed wind turbine development. I hope the Selectmen resist the lure of "free" money at the cost of Lenox's natural heritage. Wind power may seem to be renewable, but Yokun Ridge certainly is not.

Betsy Dovydenas

Lenox, Sept. 28, 2005