sammie wrote:In case some of you do not get the Altoona Mirror, I thought you might be interested in this article that appeared in yesterday's paper:
Altoona Mirror
Monday, January 12, 2009
Wind education center proposed
By David Hurst
dhurst@altoonamirror.com
PORTAGE - When people want a closer look at the region's towering windmills, forester Michael Barton is often the tour guide.
After years of giving tours of some of the sites and working around the turbines with Gamesa Corp., the Sidman-area man has gotten the hint.
"People want to see them. They're interested in how all of this works," he said.
Barton wants to build a wind education center in Portage Township off Route 164, assured it will lure tourists like the ones he's been guiding for more than a year.
His vision of the Appalachian Ridge Wind Energy Education Center moved forward Thursday when Portage's municipal water authority told its solicitor to draw up a lease option - for possible 5 years - that could give him the land to do it.
The authority has an acre-plus property near the Martindale reservoir.
A home that once stood on the site has been demolished but has infrastructure there to support the wind center, solicitor Bill Barbin said.
It also overlooks three towering Gamesa turbines, Barton said.
Bartin said he would start a non profit group to run it.
He envisions a one-story ranch cabin displaying wind instruments and the process involved. He said that he has a pledge from Gamesa that it would donate a life-sized blade for exhibit.
Barton also wants a working scale model of a windmill.
He expects the center will draw school groups and community organizations as well as tourists, who have shown up in large numbers.
Bill Latchford wrote:
- Just to be fair there was also forester that took myself and other Council Members through the Wind Farm up at Allegheny Ridge who was very knowledgeable and who had been a forester for over 20 years. So this only proves that you will have professional foresters that will be on one side or the other also. Mr. Barton seemed to be a guy that would not be just a mouth piece for a Wind Turbine company. Council Members make nothing off this project, they are only voting on what they believe will be in the best of their community.
Michael Barton receives payment directly and indirectly from windplant developers. He does not deny this. He is one of their primary mouthpieces.
To get a sense of Mr. Barton's ethics, I suggest that you read Appalachian Autumn, by Tyrone's own Marcia Bonta. The Bonta family lives in Plummer's Hollow just east of Tyrone. Michael Barton is the forester described in the book.
Appalachian Autumn
Marcia Bonta
University of Pittsburgh Press, 1994
Like her popular Appalachian Spring, Marcia Bonta’s book offers a day-by-day account of the changing world of nature in the mountains of central Pennsylvania. This time she chronicles the beauties of the autumn months as she walks the familiar roads and trails of her 500-acre mountain-top farm, noting the minute transformations of the season as well as the more dramatic ones. But her quiet sojourn in the natural world is shattered by the intrusion of a lumberman who insists upon clear-cutting a neighboring property. The massive bulldozers and skidders crush every tree and shrub, weed, and wildflower, leaving only rubble in their wake. The Bontas become involved in a lawsuit challenging this violation of the land they love and seeking to protect their own property from the effects of the logging. “Autumn is a bittersweet time,” Marcia writes, “a season of good-byes, when, after the flaming leaves fall and start the inevitable process of decay, we are left with only the bare bones of nature.” Fleeing from the whine of chain saws and the crash of falling trees, she roams the mountain-top, watching wild turkeys forage in the field, flocks of migrating birds feast on wild grapes, does and bucks eye each other in their mating ritual. But she can never completely evade the insistent question: What is the relationship between humans and nature? Does ownership give one the right to do as one pleases with the land and all the flora and fauna living on it? Does the natural world exists solely to satisfy mankind’s desire for profit? The answer is not simple; it cannot be drawn in winter’s black and white. But the issues must be of concern to every thoughtful person. Marcia Bonta’s Appalachian Autumn offers a new voice in the ongoing debate.
“A suspense-filled account of an attempt to protect the rights of all the life, non-human as well as human, of the mountain.” — Bird Watcher’s Digest
Marcia Bonta is a freelance nature writer and the author of, in addition to her Appalachian seasons books, Outbound Journeys in Pennsylvania, More Outbound Journeys in Pennsylvania, Women in the Field, American Women Afield (editor), and Escape to the Mountain. She has written more than three hundred magazine articles for such publications as Birder's World, Bird Watcher's Digest, Living Bird, and Hawk Mountain News. She writes “Pennsylvania Outbound Journeys for the Family” for Pennsylvania Wildlife and "The Naturalist's Eye" for Pennsylvania Game News. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Season of Adventure: Traveling Tales and Outdoor Journeys of Women over 50 ; American Nature Writing 1996; On Nature's Terms: Contemporary Voices; and Reading the Landscape: Writing a World . She is a popular lecturer on nature and nature writing.
This is enough to give ya grey hair !!! I was so happy when that vote came down last evening... didn't the Mayor (or someone) mention at that meeting, they would ride out the remaining 2 years then be done with this company ?? Also, wasn't it mentioned, at the end of the 2 years, council would then look into other competition ?? Was I hearing that wrong?? How can they keep coming back and coming back month after month ??? Don't they get it ?? Windmills are not wanted around this area. Tyrone needs to get on with it's own business at hand... council has enough to do... these people are starting to become leeches.
