Juniata Valley Audubon, a wildlife conservation organization with more than 450 members in Blair County is opposed to the construction of wind turbine installations on forested ridgetops in Blair County, particularly those with exceptional conservation value, such as Tyrone Borough land on Ice Mountain.
 
Ice Mountain and its surrounding area were designated as a Landscape Conservation Area (Allegheny Front #1 LCA) and County Natural Heritage Area of Exceptional Significance in the Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory which was conducted under the direction of the Blair County Planning Commission in 2003-2005. It was so designated because Ice Mountain represents a large block of unfragmented forest habitat important to forest-interior species, such as the bobcat, the fisher, the black-throated blue warbler, the black-throated green warbler, the scarlet tanager, and the hermit thrush. Industrial windplant construction requires extensive forest fragmentation through the construction of heavy-duty roads to accommodate the 400-foot tall turbines, 120-foot long blades, 60 ton nacelle, and extensive excavation for the turbine pad.
 
The Executive Summary of the Blair County Natural Heritage Inventory describes Landscape Conservation Areas as “large contiguous areas that are important because of their size, open space, habitats, and/or inclusion of one or more Biological Diversity Areas.” It goes on to say;
 
“These large regions in relatively natural condition can be viewed as regional assets; they improve quality of life by providing a landscape imbued with a sense of beauty and wilderness, they provide a sustainable economic base, and their high ecological integrity offers unique capacity to support biodiversity and human health. Planning and stewardship efforts can preserve these functions of the landscape by limiting the overall amount of land converted to other uses, thereby minimizing fragmentation of these areas.”
 
Ice Mountain and its surrounding area were also designated as Greenways in the revision of the Blair County Comprehensive Plan; which was based on public comments received in 2002-2005 (please see the attached map and text). Greenways are areas where the preservation of the natural landscape should be given first priority. The Areawide Comprehensive Plan for Blair County (adopted by the Blair County Commissioners last year) states;
 
“The ridge tops in Blair County are one of its defining characteristics. As one looks in any direction, the mountain ridges dominate the landscape. They demonstrate the power and constancy of the natural forces that shaped them. Development along ridge tops should be discouraged so that their imposing beauty is preserved. Ridge lines that should be conserved are the Allegheny Front and Dunning, Short, Loop, Lock, Brush, Bald Eagle, Canoe, and Tussey Mountains.”
 
Were a “wind farm” to be built on Ice Mountain then the “wind farm,” not the mountain, would dominate the landscape. It is hard to imagine a more shocking and obtrusive feature on the mountain than a 400-foot tall tower with 120-foot long whirling blades.
 
Ice Mountain also is part of the Allegheny Front Important Bird Area identified by the Pennsylvania Biological Survey's Ornithological Technical Committee. During migration, approximately 2 million birds pass over the Allegheny Front each night. In summer, Ice Mountain is home to about 100 species of breeding birds, many of which are dependent upon large tracts of unbroken forest. Examples of such birds are the Scarlet Tanager, the Wood Thrush, the Black-throated Green Warbler, the Canada Warbler, the Black-throated Green Warbler, and the Ovenbird.
 
A “wind farm” on Ice Mountain would violate Federal guidelines regarding the siting of utility-scale wind turbines. The US Fish and Wildlife Service guidance document states that wind energy projects should: Avoid fragmenting large, contiguous tracts of wildlife habitat. Consequently, Gamesa’s intention to possibly site an industrial wind energy facility on Ice Mountain would conflict with Ice Mountain’s designation as a Landscape Conservation Area because large roads and clearings for project infrastructure would cause extensive fragmentation of forest habitat.
 
The Ice Mountain site is part of a protective forested buffer around the Tyrone Reservoirs, which supply water to area customers. Each wind turbine contains about 200 gallons of oil in its 60-ton nacelle, the center point of the rotating assembly. Oil and water don't mix. Each turbine will be vulnerable to lightning strikes, resulting in a high risk of fire in the forested reservoir watershed. The turbines to be built on Tyrone Borough property would require the construction of miles of new roads on Ice Mountain, resulting in increased runoff and sedimentation. Each turbine also requires the clearing and grading of several acres surrounding it for construction and maintenance. Because of the risk of ice and broken parts being thrown from the rotors, people will not be able to walk near the towers, locking up large portions of Ice Mountain that were previously available to the public for hiking and hunting.
 
Juniata Valley Audubon questions the ability of the wind power industry to police itself. Despite the above-mentioned publicly-accessible scientific evidence and county planning designations, Gamesa has targeted Ice Mountain to site an industrial windplant. Their action either ignores or dismisses this area’s long-standing designations, which corroborate Ice Mountain’s exceptional conservation value. Gamesa’s effort also disregards the public approval of Ice Mountain as a Greenway - essential for the preservation of our quality of life in Blair County.
 
Juniata Valley Audubon seeks a balanced approach to energy production. It is not unreasonable to recommend that lands designated to have exceptional conservation value be off limits to industrial wind energy development.

Juniata Valley Audubon hopes that the Snyder Township Planning Commission and the Borough of Tyrone will elect to follow the US Fish and Wildlife Service guidelines mentioned above as well as heeding the County Natural Heritage Area, Landscape Conservation Area and Greenway designations of Ice Mountain.
 
Stan Kotala, M.D., President, Juniata Valley Audubon