Area residents will get their chance next week to learn about and speak on a plan for green energy in one of the state's greenest places.

BP Alternative Energy has proposed a 75-acre wind farm for the heart of about 10,000 acres of Manistee National Forest Land in Grant Township. The site is adjacent to the state's only federal wilderness area - the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, area residents get a chance to sound off at meetings in Mason and Manistee counties.

The proposal

BP proposes to build 20-28 wind turbines in the area roughly bordered by Lake Michigan, Quarterline Road, Forest Trail and the Mason-Manistee county line. The area is a conglomerate of natural scrub oak and jackpine and red pine plantation. The area has also been subject to a great deal of wildlife enhancement cutting and burning in the last decade.

The area is very rural, with Forest Trail and Quarterline being the only Class A roads in the area.

Bringing in the turbines would require about 9 miles of road construction to existing roads and approximately 5 miles of new road construction on Manistee National Forest lands. During the project, the roads would be cleared to approximately 40 feet for equipment delivery. Some of the roads would be cleared to approximately 80 feet wide to accommodate installation of the collection system and drainage. The disturbed area along the roads would be restored to a manner agreed upon by BP, the USFS and the Mason County Road Commission.

According to the scoping letter, the turbines are 262 feet high with three fiberglass blades 153 feet long for a total height of 420 feet. Each turbine would be anchored to a 60-foot diameter concrete foundation. The total disturbed area per turbine is a diameter of 250 feet or 1.1 acres. After construction, the footprint of each turbine would be reduced to less than .2 acres.

The transmission lines would be a combination of above- and below-ground lines. According to the scoping letter, 40 miles of 34.5 kilovolt underground electrical lines between turbines would be installed - along road rights of way where possible. Five miles of 138 kilovolt transmission lines would connect the farm substation to the existing Pere Marquette-to-Stronach line east of the project area (west of U.S. 31). Three miles of line would cross forest lands and two miles of line would cross private land.

Among the issues the USFS is anticipating are concerns about visual quality, noise, social economics, recreation, cultural resources, wetlands and water resources, wildlife, fisheries and rare species, vegetative composition, soil and air and conflict with old growth policy.

Tuesday 4-7 p.m. Ludington Ramada Inn
Wednesday 4-7 p.m. Manistee Days Inn
Open house format