Garrett County Commissioners have opened the door to wind turbines on Allegheny Mountain ridge tops -- and they're getting slammed by local residents for it. ...The commission said it will lobby the General Assembly to approve buffer zones of land between any future wind turbines and homes. Maryland doesn't have any wind turbines, while nearby states Pennsylvania, West Virginia and New York all boast multiple wind farms.

This document includes studies in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia.

The attached two documents include the MD Public Service Commision's (PSC) proposed Siting Guidelines for wind energy facilities in MD, and a detailed critique of this draft by Dan Boone, a conservation biologist with nearly 30 years of professional experience involving wildlife biology, forest ecology, and biodiversity protection.

Punching enormous holes into those contiguous forests for turbines, roads, and transmission lines would destroy the breeding habitat of songbirds as well as the habitats of terrestrial wildlife. ...If we fail to heed the precautionary principle in our haste to combat global warming, we could very well hasten the demise of our beautiful avian choristers, raptors, and insect devouring bats all of whom would have to dodge fast spinning blades of 450 foot tall turbines strung out all along their major migration routes.

I generally support the use of wind power as a source of cleaner energy, but this project seems dubious to me. One concern with wind power is what effect turbines may have on birds in a particular location, particularly during migration. The most obvious threat is the possibility of birds hitting the turbines. A more insidious threat is the reduction of habitat by 400 acres, and the degradation of surrounding forest with the introduction of more edge areas. Answering that concern would require significant field research; I would hope that the DNR would have that data on hand before granting permission for the project. My second concern is the use of public land for private gain. ...Overall, I think this is one project that the DNR should drop.

An alert was issued to the birding community in Maryland about a bill that has been proposed in both the House of Delegates and the state Senate that would expedite the construction of wind farms at will. If you live in Maryland and care about the environment and wildlife, please contact your representatives in Annapolis and urge them to oppose this bill. The bill would eliminate any requirement for any public review or notification — or even informing adjacent land owners whose property values could plummet. Nor would there be any environmental review of the impact on wildlife, endangered species, or forest fragmentation. All an applicant for a wind project would have to do is request a construction permit from the Public Service Commission. Nobody is trying to keep wind farms out of the state — only to keep them subject to adequate review to ensure that the locations and construction methods that are chosen will not harm birds and other wildlife and plants.

But the fast-moving blades of the wind turbines form a gauntlet, a potential death trap for night-flying creatures that cannot see the danger ahead.